No Such Thing
by KoopalingFan
Summary: They say there's no such thing is having a really bad day of the year, though some say otherwise. Either way, never forget the ones who raised you, no matter how many obstacles get in your way, even if it is life-threatening. Ch 12: "Would you rather deal with a bad person or an evil person?"
1. Chapter 1: Fact or Fake

No Such Thing

Chapter 1- Fact or Fake

 **It's finally here, everyone! The first chapter of my first Mario story in a while. Think it was like two or three years ago. Yeah, it's been a while. It was all thanks to Super Smash Brothers where my attention focused most. (That doesn't mean that I'm going to abandon my Smash stories.) Maining Roy in Mario Kart 8 was what made me sprout some ideas for the Koopalings since all my (terrible) Mario fanfics fell off the face of the earth.**

 **And now, it's time to make a comeback.**

 **I feel that my best genre when it comes to the Koopalngs in Hurt/Comfort, with a slight touch of adventure, which gave the birth to this. However, everyone in Bowser's Castle is just staying themselves, since this is basically an introduction. Though, action will take place starting in chapter 2 most likely. Reason I said most likely is that I'm writing chapters in advance once again. (Or at least attempting to, depending on how things turn out. I am typing this up two days after Friday the 13th in March, which gave the main idea for this chapter and its title.) If I type enough chapters in advance, this will normally updated once a week.**

 **Since I don't wanna make this too long, let's just dive in.**

 **~KF**

* * *

Bowser's Castle, Castle Koopa, or Home of the Dark Lands.

Whatever name you prefer, it was known to rival Princess Toadstool's castle in the Mushroom Kingdom, where the King of Koopas himself would go in attempt to take away the long-haired princess. Though to present day, he still wasn't able to get what he desired most, which angered him greatly almost every time he attempted to.

Although King Bowser Koopa seemed as if he was filled with gloom and doom all the way, even ones like him had a soft side. Occasionally, he would either fight alongside the savior of the Mushroom Land, or battle against each other, but only when he was not doing anything that tick off the italian plumber. For example, they would go go-kart racing and Smash tournaments. Mario respected him, and Bowser somewhat did the same.

It was yet to become known to his eight children that they would had been involved in a great opportunity: The chance to fight in the Super Smash Bros. world, where fighters from other worlds would come every year to fight against each other for the sake of fun and for tournaments. Although, they were only able to occasionally fill in for Bowser Jr. However, going go-kart racing would be enough to make it up.

Speaking of Bowser's children, they were currently eating supper together along with their vigorous father in the dining room at a large, dark brown table. Meatloaf, vegetables, and mashed potatoes was being served for the night. While some were devouring their last meal of the day without question, others would make sure that it fits their taste. Otherwise, they would find that the chefs were being disrespectful towards them by not getting the way they would like it.

For example, the third eldest son, Roy, was very fond of his meat being drowned in hot sauce. Whatever made him fond of eating food that were super spicy was beyond his family and the chefs, though a couple of his siblings thought that it had fit with his personality. Basically, he preferred brawn over brains. If things turned out wrong for him, he would threaten a punch to the face for anyone that cooked his meal, even though his behavior would usually be stopped by his father, and his eldest brother, Ludwig.

He found hot sauce tolerable, though it just wasn't his style when it came to taste. The first born preferred his food having at least two pieces of chocolate on the side of his plate, just in case he didn't like something. Most of his siblings would give him weird looks, but he would promptly respond by saying that they shouldn't just him. The younger brother Morton would joke occasionally that his beaver-like tooth was his one sweet tooth that always seemed to get the better of him.

One of the three Koopalings who also adored sugary sweets was prince Lawrence, or Larry for short. In spite of that, it was never requested with his meal. Even if he did, Bowser was scold him stating that he was simply too young to eat sweets like that. Nevertheless, if his food was at least edible for him, he'll devour it.

Same applied to his youngest older brother, the aforementioned Morton Jr., who was named after Bowser's father thanks to his dark skin tone. Larry might sneak candy, but Morton will secretly stomach any kind of food he could find, especially late at night. Some of his siblings would judge his weight because of it, but then he would bring up the fact that he worked out a lot with Roy, claiming that it was all just muscle.

Next to Morton was the only girl of the bunch, Gwendolyn, or Wendy. Her food was by far the most challenging to make, even more difficult than Roy. She believed that just because she's the only girl, meant almost everything had to go her way. And making sure that the food had to be perfect for her was no exception. For meatloaf, it had to be cooked at the perfect temperature, there had to be just the right amount of gravy on it, and the meat should not be too tough for her to chew.

To add onto her personality, she didn't play any games when it came to fashion. Half the time when they went on a family outing with her, she would put on too much mascara and red lipstick. And since she never grown hair, she had always wore a pink bow with white polka-dots on her head to use it as a cover up. It was pretty obvious that she was a complete girly-girl, yet she was around seven brothers, and four of them were older than her.

That didn't mean that all four of them were taller than the pre-teen, specifically Lemuel, whom was often called Lemmy. The only reason being so was that he was born prematurely. Roy guessed that was the reason to why he acted so playful. However, he knew when to be an older brother. A lot of times, he loved his food cold, which was absurd to everyone around him. Sickness would occur sometimes if he ate too much of it, which was why his father would force him to eat food at least room-temperatured. When he had something sweet like french toast for breakfast, King Koopa would make sure he didn't put too much syrup. If he does, it would result in a sugar rush.

The youngest child, who was chosen the name of his father, also looked almost exactlty like him when he was just a baby. He wasn't nearly as much trouble when it came to food like his other siblings. The only problem that affected his eating habits was that he was picky at times. It was really fortunate for Bowser since he knew that he had less to deal with.

Finally, there was Ignatius, or Iggy. He used to have rainbow-colored hair like his older brother Lemmy, yet thanks to one of his many outrageous experiments, his hair was now shaped like a tree for life. Nonetheless, the Koopa was actually fond with it after having mixed emotions for half a week.

As of now, he was one of those who was actually enjoying his dinner, who liked his food well cooked. He was one of the eight the chefs didn't have to worry about, and he would eat any meal with him any day...

...unlike Wendy, who only had the nerve to blink at her food. Slowly picking up her fork, she took a small poke at her meatloaf. Her brothers had noticed one-by-one and eyed her in reaction, consequently looking at their father, knowing what was going to come.

"...King Daddy!" she exclaimed, slamming her fork on the brown table. "My meatloaf isn't right! There's too much gravy on it, and it's too hot for me!"

"Wait for it to cool off..." Iggy suggested rolling his eyes.

"That doesn't change the amount of gravy on it, does it!?" She glared at the tallest out of the eight. "Exactly how long has it been they have been doing this!?"

Bowser decided to rest part of his face in his hand with a groan, not finding the time to deal with the behavior. "Wendy, for the umpteenth time, it does not have to be perfect all the-"

"Yes it does!" The thirteen year old cut off her own father. "We need to get new chefs for this castle because they don't know how to cook! They aren't doing their job, and they should know us by now!"

Not having the strength to deal with his sister's frustration, Larry sighed as he banged his head on the table.

"Just because we're part of the royal family doesn't mean that the chefs are perfect, Wendy!" Ludwig jumped in glaring. "Deal with it and-"

"No, it is not right, and disrespectful!"

Roy Jackson Koopa then chose to add fuel to the fire by tossing his plate to the wall, forcing a frightened Morton to duck out of the way in a last attempt. Said plate shattered to dozens of pieces. "It's not enough!"

He did not watch his older brother, Lemmy, blink with a blank stare. _"How can his mouth tolerate that? It's impossible!"_ He thought to himself.

With a heaved sigh, Bowser chose to let his two offspring have the meal their way, yet again. "CHEFS, ROY AND WENDY NEED TWO NEW PIECES OF MEATLOAF!"

"And remove all these vegetables off my plate!" The former Koopaling called out. "What do I look like? A vegetarian?"

This explained the reason why the strong teenager hated salad with a burning passion, especially when his eyes stared disgusted at his siblings eating the leafy dish every Wednesday.

"...So anyway, " Junior changed the subject so that this wouldn't result in an arguement. "has anyone else forgotten that today's Friday the 13th?"

Most of his siblings paused almost immediately to nimbly shift their heads.

"...Oh, yeah!" Morton snapped his fingers escaping his confusion. "Thanks for reminding me, little bro. You know, to make it less forgettable, they should really made Friday the 13th a national holiday! But then again, why should they because it's considered to be full of bad luck, and I don't like bad luck. What if something really bad happens in our sleep- OW! Roy!?"

He ended up being slapped in the head. The dark-skinned, dragon-koopa was mainly known for his talkative habits. Sometimes when a new topic is brought up, Morton always made a big deal out of it by either going too far, discuss it way longer than necessary, or both. It was always either Roy or Ludwig that would physically force him to keep his mouth closed.

The blue-shelled son of Bowser knew that some of his brothers would be frightened because of the suppose day full of bad luck, so he chose to be a big brother so that they wouldn't have to worry. "Well, that day is basically a myth. Nothing normally bad happens on that day. And even is something were to happen today, it would simply be considered as a coincidence."

Of course, Roy enjoyed making them feel scared anyway just for his own amusement. "But, what if it's the only day of the year when something really, _really_ bad happens to us and not for the rest of the year? That would be too much of a coincidence, would it? It may affect us for life..."

Ignoring Ludwig's facepalm, Lemmy and Iggy turned to the pink-headed boy with terrified expressions while Larry halted his eating time, his piece of brocolli on a fork with his mouth open. Blinking, his eyes were now focused on the talkers.

"W-W-What!?" Iggy suddenly screamed. "Oh no, no, no! We can't let that happen! There's no way I'm getting murdered in my sleep tonight!"

The plant-haired enemy of Mario retreated into his shell.

Lemmy began to panic. "T-then that means that we're all gonna die!? King Dad, you need to go get your minions so that they can block the door! We're too young to die! You know what happens when you don't lock the doors at night!"

With a gulp, Lawrence watched his two older brothers scream like crazy, the eldest one heading for the door, only to be stopped by the other blue-haired Koopaling.

"Look, nothing bad is going to happen to you,or any of us. If that was the case, we would _all_ be six feet under. It comes every year, right? Well, how come every time this day comes, _nothing_ unfortunate takes place!? What's so special about this year just because we brought it up? Iggy, get out of your shell! There is absolutely _nothing_ to be afraid of!"

Roy groaned in annoyance. He hated it when someone ruined his fun, especially Ludwig. "Dang it, Ludwig..."

"I heard that." He folded his arms. "If you didn't want me to hear it, just say it in your mind and be done with it. Always look before you leap, brawn-over-brains..."

"..." It was his turn to cross his arms at that moment.

* * *

After their final course of the day was over with, Larry, Lemmy, Wendy, and Junior desired to head to Iggy's lab since they hadn't had anything better to do at the time. Larry had just completed one of his favorite video games of all time, none of Wendy's friends were available to talk to via phone, and Lemmy would mostly come to the lab, since the two were closer than twins. Though at times, Lemmy would never understand Iggy's insane nature, and Iggy would never understand Lemmy's ways of immaturity.

Acting as if the conversation in the dining room never happened, Iggy show a terrified expression on his face. "So, do you guys think Friday the 13th really exists?"

Larry gulped while Lemmy shared his feelings. "Yeah, what if Ludwig's wrong?" Lemmy questioned. "What if they are watching us this very moment?

He widened his eyes. "We have to do something if it is real! Last thing we need is to... to... to have King Dad... d-d-d-dy-"

"Now," Wendy was already growing tired of this subject and only wished that they would just let it go. "what makes you thing that King Daddy will be killed in his sleep? Or, any of us for that matter? May I remind you of what Ludwig said-"

"Ludwig doesn't know everything, Wendy!" Ignatius stared angrily at his only sister. "He might have been born before all of us, and he might almost as smart as me-"

"He is smarter than you." Junior butted in lifting a finger.

"No, he's not!" He turned to face Wendy once more. "But, that doesn't mean that he can predict the future saying that everything will be just fine when things are just going to be the opposite the second we hit the hay! ...Or when midnight arrives..."

It was when Larry finally decided to make a comment. "...I-I-I agree with Iggy on this one... Like Lemmy said, what if someone's watching our every move right now!?"

"You guys are taking this way too far!" Wendy shouted, "It doesn't make any sense!"

"Yes, it does!" Lemmy said.

"You guys are being a bunch of wimps." Junior stated, "We have guards here. They can't get inside the castle."

"B-but... what about... g-ghosts?"

That was what made him pause. If Friday the 13th was real, like Boos, random ghosts came literally go through the doors as if it was normal for them, which it was. "...Oh no..."

Wendy finally had enough as she chose to leave the room and head into her SmashBook account on her persoanl laptop.

Meanwhile, the father of the eight children was not signing papers or planning to defeat his arch-enemy for once. He was actually taking a look at his family photo album for a change entitled: 'The Royal Family' in golden capitalized letters.

Before taking a moment remember the events that happened on the first page, a knock was sounded on the other side of his door.

"It's open."

Almost a second later, the Koopaling named after Ludwig Von Beethoven strolled in his father's giant bedroom, finding him sitting on his king size bed glancing at the pictures in the family album.

"...Taking a glance at memories, huh?" The blue-haired son raised an eyebrow.

He nodded in return with a sigh. "I had nothing else to do for the day... I've finished signing all those documents, completed my sketch plan for Princess Peach's upcoming kidnapping, and had Kamek repair my lamp for the umpteenth time."

His eyes shifted towards said lamp, having a red velvet colored lampshade. "...And exactly _how_ did you break it this time again?"

"...I... uh..." His mind was searching for the right words. "... ...You know how you get when you get so angry, you act without thinking by taking your anger out on something... that is very... valuable..."

"...Pathetic..."

"Leave me alone..."

"Let's not forget that from time to time you have the nerve to act without thinking." Ludwig recalled and folded his arms. "So, what really happened?"

"...Wendy's high heels never came in the mail. From what she said, they're suppose to come today, but they have yet to arrive..."

The eldest of the Koopalings chuckled. "Wonder why she never thought of taking a quick trip to the mall?"

The ruler of the Dark Lands sighed once again. "Wendy does what Wendy wants to do..."

"And part of that reason because she is spoiled. She gets what she wants, when she wants, and how she wants it." He finished. "You know it."

"...Well, I'm pretty sure I don't spoil her, now..." Ignoring him rolling his eyes, he decided to get back on topic. "Anyways, out of all things I had in mind, I chose to open this photo album of our family after never doing so since your mom's birthday..."

Silence took over Ludwig, hence he was too busy staring at a picture of his late mother hugging a five year old Larry. Believe it or not, despite being only seven years old at the time, he still remembered it very well. The week after the photo was taken, she announced that she was pregnant with the final child, Junior.

To this day, he still felt bad for him not being able to see his own mother alive since he was still in his egg when she passed away after hatching it. Even though, when her birthday came around after she died, he felt so upset he blamed the entire event on the young brother himself. At one point, he even attempted to kill the youngest son of Bowser due to him almost drinking bleach that Ludwig gave him. Although, out of out people, Roy prevented him from doing so, resulted in the blue-haired boy getting punched in the face. In spite of him being violent, the scene exposed Roy's soft side, hidden beneath his 'tough-guy' personality.

Although that took place years ago, he still shuddered at the thought of the fact that he would have been with his mother today so that he could finally see the face of her in person.

 _"...I know you don't remember it at all, I am still sorry..."_ He thought.

Bowser noticed the expression on his face. "...Is something the matter?"

"Nothing!" He promptly answered with a raised head, "...It's ...it's just a thing of the past..."

"Your mother?"

"No... after that..."

"... ... ..." It was his turn to stay quite for a few moments. In fact, when Bowser heard of said incident, he partially blamed himself. He thought that he should have been a better parent and kept an eye on Junior. The koopa had left him with Ludwig for a bit since he asked for him. Little did he know that he was secretly hiding something. But then again, he was not in the best of moods anyway, since his wife was on his mind 24/7. "...D-don't worry about it, anymore... It was all my stupidity..."

His son would have argued back, though he knew it would have been pointless. So he focused his mind back to his deceased mother. "...When she was gone,... I... I thought to myself that this family would never be the same, like we're missing the last piece of the puzzle... And then when you realize that it's lost, you'd be upset, especially if that puzzle contained many pieces that you've worked so hard on..."

"I feel that way too, son... When she was gone, I've felt like I have nothing to live for... But obviously, there's you and your siblings..."

Ludwig smiled for a quick moment, before returning to his original facial expression.

"...Sometimes I would wonder why they heck did I have so many children? ...But then, I would learn that having a big family can be a good thing, even when you get your hands full..."

The eldest of the Koopalings just stared at him in reaction. Unlike his last statement, he was sure he had never heard him saying something like that before. Nevertheless, he was right. Having a big family wouldn't hurt. Like he previously stated, there might be just one piece missing from a huge puzzle. Regardless, it took a lot of hard work putting it together, just like Bowser and Queen Clawdia Koopa did when they were building this family.

That being said, sometimes bigger can be better.

His only parent could have extended the conversation even further, had he not been interrupted by a sudden pain in his chest. It wasn't too sharp, but it still felt strange and weird to him. The fact that it came out of nowhere was beyond him. "Ow.." He covered the spot where it hurt the most.

There was no reason why Ludwig shouldn't have been concerned. He raised an eyebrow. "You're okay?"

"I'm fine..." He stared at the covered spot at his chest. "...My chest just hurts all of a sudden... Go find Kamek..."

As he ordered, the blue-shelled teen stood up once more and began headed his way out the door. While he was nearing it, he turned for a brief moment to give a slight smile at Bowser. It might have not been the same on the outside, but he still knew how to take care of his large family no matter what happened and how many mistakes they made.

* * *

 **I've decided to end things off here. Sorry for no action happening, but I just wanted to get things started. So, what do you think? Did you think I gave Ludwig too much attention? I encourage everyone to review!**

 _ **Questions:**_

 **1\. Do you believe in Friday the 13th, or you think it's just childish altogether?**

 **2\. Who's your favorite Koopaling?**

 **3\. If Friday the 13th is real, what would you be doing?**


	2. Chapter 2: Abandonment

No Such Thing

Chapter 2- Abandonment

 **For those of you who were waiting for all the action to commence, now is your chance. Throughout the entire chapter is filled with it, so don't miss out!**

 **And just in case if you guys thought that I gave Ludwig a little too much attention in the last chapter, I do apologize. When this chapter is over, I'll give the other seven lots of attention to make up for it.**

 **~KF**

* * *

It was officially midnight in the Dark Lands, thus ending the supposed 'Bad Luck Day' of the year. One would think that the younger Koopalings will finally put the story to rest, since it was basically too silly for them to believe that the day actually exists, especially ones like Ludwig.

Some time after he received that medication Kamek had given him for his chest, one-by-one, the Koopalings who actually believed that there was a day full of bad luck entered the room to be updated on his status. He was dumbfounded, being slightly annoyed that they had yet to put it to rest. Then again, he would remember that times like that the children would never put a topic to rest, unless they were proven that they were wrong.

And thus, it was the reason why Morton Koopa Jr. was literally the only being awake at the time. Despite the fact that Friday the 13th was over, from what he heard from Roy was that things would go back to normal when the sun rises. As a result, the sixth Koopaling thought that he had to make sure that there was nothing unusual about Bowser's Castle, hence to why he had a flashlight in hand.

He was thinking about getting one of his older siblings to join them so that things wouldn't be as scary for him, though that would have ended in being as just as scared as well, him getting punched in the face, or simply being told to go back to sleep.

So Morton had no choice but to be on his own, now nearing his father's bedroom. _"So far, so good..."_

He might have been just getting started on his little mission, but at least he wasn't as terrified. Nothing different from the usual was seen as he peeked from every corner. Consequently, it managed to calm him down a bit. Nevertheless, he was still not going to get his hopes up. Last thing he thought of doing was to completely jinx everything by saying, 'What could possibly go wrong?'.

It actually became a good thing for Morton to not say those exact words, because the moment he turned the corner to enter the hallway, he could hear noises coming from his next destination. Almost immediately he stood still, increasingly becoming more fearful again.

"...D-Dad?"

He could hear the sound of moaning, as if he were in pain, combining with a bit of muffled yelling, as if another being was in his room. It was gradually becoming louder. Thus, the poor son began to fear the worst with his eyes widening.

 _"H-he does not sound well at all... Is he arguing with someone? ...Or is he arguing with himself? But, why would their be two voices talking at the same time? ...And there seems to be somewhat of a difference between the two voices... W-W-What do I do? What if things are about to go too far? ...I can't leave him like this..."_

For his final solution, he chose to get his oldest brother. Lucky for him, his room was not far. If he were to get Roy, Iggy, or Lemmy, he worried that there wouldn't be enough time in case whoever was in the room besides Bowser would lead up into a brawl.

* * *

 _ **BANG! BANG! BANG!**_

"LUDWIG, OPEN THE DOOR! HURRY UP!"

Ludwig Von Koopa's sleep had unfortunately came to a halt, as he was quickly awakened by his brother's knocking. Nonetheless, that didn't stop him from taking his time to get to the door. Upon opening it, he groaned from frustration.

"What do you want this early in the morning? You are going to awaken the whole castle if you keep knocking so loudly..."

"Ludwig, something's wrong with dad! He sounds like he's hurt, and I think someone's in his room!"

His last statement made Ludwig wonder with concern and confusion. "...Someone's in his room? How can that happen? I'm pretty sure his door is locked, isn't it? The only people that can get in his room if it's that way are us, since we have claws for a reason. As for the pain, I assume that those pills were not helping at all. Has it gotten worse? ...Wait a minute,... he hadn't told you, had he?"

"...Well whatever you're talking about, apparently it has! And for that, there's proof that Friday the 13th is real! We have to get to his room fast instead of sitting here talking!"

* * *

It didn't take long at all for the two sons of the king of Darklands to approach the door to his bedroom. Base on the noises alone, it was quite obvious that Morton was telling the truth. What got Ludwig the most was the fact that his father was indeed yelling at someone, and the other voice sounded like his own's, only way deeper.

Wanting to find out what was the trouble, he ordered Morton to stay put, subsequently using his claw to unlock the door. Rushing in, his eyes widened in horror as he saw his father on the floor with both hands on his chest, as if he was fighting for his life. Yet, there was mysteriously no one else in the bedroom.

Ignoring that, he rushed to his side and started to try his best to turn him over. "Father, are you okay? I'm gonna go get Kamek, and I'll get Morton so he can watch over you until I come back!"

Right at the end of his sentence, purple smoke began forming around him, causing the blue-haired Koopa to be more confounded. "...Father...? W-W... What's happening...?"

Finally opening his eyes, he managed to look over at his first born. "...L-Ludwig,... g-get your siblings and get out of here... N-Now..."

He then knew what the purple smoke was about. It was known to him that whenever that type of smoke escaped from Bowser he would turn into his skeletal form like he normally does when he tries to kill Mario with his blue flames at times. Except now, due to the arguing, it came to his hypothesis that the voice belonged to it. What struck him was why was he suddenly changing into Dry Bowser. Obviously, it seems that he was not intending to transform at that point. It sounded like the other voice was trying to take over, or whatever the case may be.

Not having the time to figure out, he stared down at his only parent, with the hesitation of leaving him like that. Their mother had already left years prior, and now he was the only parent he and his siblings had left. None of them thought of ever abandoning him like that.

But now, Ludwig was afraid he had no choice. Within a few steps, he turned around dashing off, resulting in a frightened and confounded Morton.

"What's wrong with him!? What do we do!"

"Morton, listen to me. We need to get the others and leave the castle immediately..."

His eyes grew large. "...What!?"

"Just do it! I don't think we have that much time!"

A few seconds of staring and looking back, he did what his brother told and dashed off. Ludwig on the other hand stayed put and glanced at the door. It took a couple moments for him to think before he closed it, running to his siblings' rooms in a split second.

As Morton was nearing the corner, the thought of his father suffering and Friday the 13th made tears form in the corner of his eyes.

 _"I knew it... I just knew it... This is the last thing we want to happen and we've just said so in Iggy's lab... So, I guess dad doesn't have that much time left. It's probably too late to save him... ...I... I knew it... Every last one of us is going to be murdered! ...And there is nothing we can do about it..."_

* * *

"WHAT DO YOU WANT!?"

It was pretty rare for Morton not to be petrified by his stronger brother's shouting. Upon seeing his still scared look thanks to what was currently happening, Roy assumed that he was still scared of Friday the 13th.

Despite his facial expression, it never made any sense for him. First off, why would Morton come to Roy's room first, and not Ludwig's? He was simply the oldest of them all. Secondly, he was breathing rapidly, so he inferred that he was out of breath. He was just banging on the door, without him screaming as loud as he possibly could. And even if he did, Morton talked all the time. It was hard for him to run out of breath simply by speaking a million sentences. Was he running? And finally, he had tears running down his cheeks. The only reason why Morton would cry as of now is that Roy was pulling a prank on him because he would want to humor himself by terrifying him as he was some ghost or something because of Friday the 13th. The problem? Only Roy would do, and nobody else.

"...Huh?"

"Roy, Ludwig said that we have to get out of here immediately!"

By his tone of his voice combining with his upset look, he knew he wasn't lying. Something was wrong. "...What? What do you mean?"

"It's dad! Apparently, something has come over him! You see, I was looking around the castle trying to be a brave Koopa for once and make sure that there was nothing in the castle because it was midnight! Like you said, the most danger happens at midnight right after Friday the 13th! Then, I heard dad yelling and making noise in his room! So, I got Ludwig so that he could listen for himself! The next thing I knew, he dashed out and told me to get you all and head out! I don't know what has happened to dad, but-"

He was shoved out the way by his older sibling as he started off. "I'm gonna go find out myself..."

Morton promptly followed him holding a hand out. "Roy, wait! I don't think we can't go back there!"

* * *

"W-What do you mean something's wrong with dad!?" asked a now wide-awakened Larry. "Can you at least explain to me!?"

"Once we get out of the castle, I will explain everything!" Ludwig replied, pointing out the door. "I need to further thinkabout this myself, but I don't have enough time to do so!"

"B-But i-... if something was wrong with him, don't you think we should get Kamek or something-"

"Kamek won't fix it!" It did remind Ludwig about Kamek, however. _"Speaking of... I wonder if we can still get Kamek in time, depending on how much time Bowser has... ...W-We need to get together quickly."_

"He won't!?" Larry's eyes widen.

"N-No, Larry! He's in such of a bad condition, I... ...Look, just help me get the others we are out of here, unless we have enough time to find Kamek! Maybe we can even start rescuing some of Bowser's minions while we're at it! Just go, we're wasting time!"

* * *

"WENDY, WAKE UP! WE'VE GOT TO GET OUT OF HERE, NOW!"

After rapidly banging out the door, a series of loud stomps followed towards it, until it was eventually opened. It was then when Larry realized that all he had to do was to use his claw, instead of pulling off a Morton and just loudly knock and scream.

"LARRY, THIS'D BETTER BE GOOD! YOU KNOW HOW I HATE TO BE UP THIS EARLY IN THE MORNING, ESPECIALLY AT MIDNIGHT! YOU HAVE FIVE SECONDS!"

"DAD'S IN TROUBLE! LUDWIG TOLD ME ABOUT IT, BUT HE COULDN'T EXPLAIN! TOLD ME TO GET EVERYONE ELSE AND HEAD OUT!" He exclaimed. The poor, young Koopaling was so scared, not only that he was greatly confused about the whole situation, he knew that it was a lot to take in. It was beginning to give him a headache as a consequence.

"TIME'S UP!" She began to think after acting. The only female of the bunch lowered her hand as she started to form a questionable and astonished expression on her face that was seen without her make-up. "W-What a minute... Daddy's... in trouble? What's wrong with him? Is he hurt?"

"I don't know, ask Ludwig! But, we need to get everyone else and get out of here as soon as possible!"

Receiving that amount of information, the Koopa nimbly walked to her dresser to grab her heels and bow. "Well, if we are gonna get out the castle, then give me at least ten seconds!"

That was just the minimum time Lawrence needed so that he could at least take a breath. _"I want to at least see how he's doing. This is insane, us having to wake up like this... I-I hope we actually run into him. I still have so many questions to ask Ludwig..."_

* * *

"Slow down, Roy! Don't do this!"

Morton still wasn't able to convince Roy to get away from the hallway that included Bowser's room. But of course, being older, stronger, and with the sense of curiosity, it gave him reasons to disobey Morton's command.

 _"Almost there... Morton was right... Wait, I hear another voice... What's going on? I don't know why Ludwig would just tell us to runaway from him like that. He is our father! Does he really expect to just ditch him!? He must be crazy!"_

As he was only a few yards away, a very furious skeletal version of Bowser knocked down the door and leaped into the hallway, with a roar immediately following afterwards.

As for Roy, all he could do was to stop in his tracks and watch the event with his jaw dropped. _"... ... ... ..."_

It was as if time had slowed down. Morton had stopped where he was at as well. He was finally given the opportunity to take at least one moment to look at his now skinless parent, which was looking dead at his sibling.

The last time he saw his father was at dinner, and he seemed that nothing was bothering him one bit. He was just his normal self, thinking of ways to try and defeat his arch-nemesis and signing documents all day. Now it was only a few minutes past midnight. Seeing him at that moment, he not only took it to the heart, but he was so shocked by it, he didn't even think of the word 'dad'. The next thing he paid attention to was the look in his now fiery eyes, glaring down at the fifteen year old with his scrunched up eyebrows.

...Was he about to attack his own son?

Ludwig, Lemmy, and Iggy eventually joined their brothers to get a view of their skeletal dad, angrily glancing at the third child of the royal king and queen of Dark Lands. Lemmy and Iggy had no words escaping from their mouths as Lemmy stumbled while Iggy didn't even have the nerve to blink.

Their eldest brother had a similar reaction, only he had to be the one to command everyone. "...G-GUYS, W-WE HAVE TO LEAVE, N-NOW!"

Although the rest of them were hesitant, Dry Bowser took a deep breath slowly as he leaned his head back. Roy apparently never took the hint that he was preparing for his first attack. In spite of that, once he unleashed blue fire from his mouth, he finally got the message as he waited for the last opportunity to duck as said fire hit the ground, rather than he head.

He and his siblings didn't waste any more time as that ran as fast as their legs allowed them to, while the dry version of Bowser continued to exhale blue fire at the Koopalings.

Fortunately, the remaining children had met up with them so that they can observe their dumbfounded and terror-stricken faces. Feelings that had to be ignored.

"WE HAVE TO TAKE THE OTHER WAY AROUND AND GET OUT OF HERE, NOW!" yelled Ludwig.

Perhaps if they ran fast enough, Dry Bowser would lose the sight of him. Then again, Lemmy had short legs, and the youngest three could not match their older siblings' speed.

Ludwig remembering that fact grabbed Larry's hand and ran with him, since he was the nearest. Lemmy waited for the right moment to hop on Ludwig since he didn't want to slow his siblings down. Junior ended up being grabbed by Roy, and Morton just tried his best to keep up.

...Then there was Wendy.

She was wearing her heels and thus couldn't go her fastest. Ignatius was the first to notice that he saw that his only sister was already struggling to keep up with her brothers. "You guys are too fast! Don't forget about me!"

"DANG IT, JUST GRAB MY HAND!"

She didn't hesitate in doing so as she was now running with the plant-like, teenage scientist.

" _ **ROAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!**_ "

The roar from the skeletal version of Bowser was so loud, almost all of his children had to cover their ears. Although, the thing was that the voice didn't sound far from them at all.

"...HE'S GAINING ON US!" Morton cried, not bothering to look behind. "I DON'T THINK WE CAN OUTRUN HIM!"

No one could argue with him. They couldn't just keep running throughout the entire castle without their father catching him. A Plan B was necessary. Iggy swiftly shifted his head from left to right. "Quick!" He pointed to a minor hallway. "Over there!"

His siblings followed into said hallway and tried their best to hide as some of them began to grow tired already. Roy was quick to cover Morton's mouth in case he randomly started mouthing away.

Dry Bowser came way sooner than his kids had predicted. And it wasn't a smart move to just keep going in the same direction instead of looking around to make sure that they weren't hiding. Thus, the eight of them were lucky.

"...Okay..." Sweat was rolling down Ludwig's face. "...N-Now,... I think o-our b-best option we have is to distract him if we want to make it out of here alive, since our father has been..." He hung his head down emotionally.

Meanwhile, Roy was fuming the entire time. By now, he was just about to lose it. He removed his hand from Morton's mouth and growled. "THAT'S IT! THIS IS SO NOT HAPPENING!" He stormed to Ludwig. "YOU MEAN TO TELL ME THAT WERE JUST GONNA LEAVE OUR OWN DAD LIKE THIS, KNOWING THAT HE'S ALL WE HAVE LEFT? I WAS A FOOL TO ACTUALLY START RUNNING FROM HIM IN THE FIRST PLACE! IF HE IS TO DIE, THEN I'M DYING WITH HIM!"

All eyes were not taken off the burly Koopa for even half of a second. Yes, it was another one of Roy's raging fits when something ticked him off to a point. Regardless, who can blame him? His last and only parent was basically betraying him in a way, even though it wasn't even his fault to begin with. No, his skeletal form has betrayed him, forcing the normal Bowser to no longer be in control. One can bet that the soul of the actual Koopa was regretting his every move for his children to be killed.

Larry was beginning to tear up. "He's right... He is all he have left, and things are turning up like this. Last thing we need is to fight our own father. I don't even wanna dream about it. Bowser is our pillar. If he falls, then it's over for the rest of us..."

After that was all said, the rest of the siblings stared from Larry to the floor in sadness...

...with the exception of Ludwig. "...We aren't finished yet..."

It was now his turn to gain all of the attention. "Listen up, Roy! If you care about father so much, you should find it in your heart to never give up on him! It is clearly not his fault for all of this! Are we just gonna stand here and watch this castle get burned and let our own father kill us all? YOU MUST BE OUT OF YOUR MIND! YOU SAY IF HE WAS TO DIE, THEN YOU WOULD DIE AS WELL! I WOULD PREFER TO NEVER LET HOPE DISAPPEAR LIKE THAT! IF THERE IS A WAY TO BRING HIM BACK, THEN I SEE NO REASON TO JUST ACCEPT IT AND LET HIM FINISH US LIKE THIS! IF I WERE YOU, I WOULD NOT JUST STAND HERE AND JUST SAY THAT I'M DONE AS I ALLOW MYSELF TO BE BURNED TO DEATH, EVEN IF HE WAS TO BE LIKE THIS FOREVER! WHEREVER HE GOES, THEN I WILL GO!"

Roy was so shocked in Ludwig's speech, one could think that he was as still as a statue. Ludwig had a point. If there was even only one way to get Bowser back, just giving up on him basically meant that they were okay with him being Dry Bowser being in control of their real father and just let him perish. They had to keep going no matter what. If there wasn't a way, if they were the choose between the world and Bowser, it would be the latter.

* * *

Throughout the entire trip out of the interior of the castle, they didn't run into Kamek or any of Bowser's minions. It would have cause the Koopalings to be bombshelled, but they didn't have the time to think about it. Maybe they were already out of the castle. Maybe they were already beginning to head their way out. However, worst case scenario was that Dry Bowser would have taken them down by his fiery breaths.

The trip seemed to last for hours, but they had the strength to make it to the outside. When they thought they were at a safe distance, they stopped to turn around...

...and have one last look at the castle.

Dry Bowser had probably breathed many more blue flames at different locations inside the castle, most likely in attempts to burn anyone who was trying to escape. Speaking of survivors, one or two of the group guessed that the only ones who had made it out were themselves. No one else was seen. Or they were still inside the castle, they escaped out the back door, or they have gone missing.

At that point, the blue flames were rapidly engulfing their home. Pieces of it were either being burned down or falling off. The Koopalings had to watch in horror and fear as they knew that there was no way to save it. The home they were born in was being destroyed by the king himself, their parent.

And just from that thought, it would haunt them for life.

* * *

 **...Well, I promised you all action, and there you have it. If there is one thing I hate, is to disappoint my fans, so I hope that I didn't! Any criticism needed? Favorite parts? Likes/dislikes?**

 **Also, I have posted a oneshot called "The Family Tree" based on the first chapter for those of you who don't know!**

 **Questions:**

 **1\. What would your reaction be if your parents suddenly turned on you, even though you've known them your whole life?**

 **2\. If they were to die, would you die with them or keep going with your life and remember them in your heart?**

 **I encourage all Koopa fans to review.**


	3. Chapter 3: Out of all Places

No Such Thing

Chapter 3- Out of All Places

 **Just so you know, this story takes after Mario Kart 8 and before Bowser Jr. was invited to the fourth installment to the Super Smash Brothers series. I'd figured that's where it would fit best. If this took place after Smash 4, then this would meet quite a few plot holes in the future.**

 **When I post this chapter, I will put up a new poll based on your favorite Koopaling from this.**

 **~KF**

* * *

"QUICK, GET TO MY AIRSHIP!"

The eight offspring of Bowser were now dashing for their eldest brother's airship before their skeletal father suddenly leaped out of the castle. Since he was Dry Bowser for a reason, fire would not put a stop to him. The only thing that could is if the entire castle collapses on him. But, the Koopalings knew that it wouldn't happen in just a minute or so, notwithstanding the fact that blue flames burn things quicker than normal ones since they were at a higher temperature.

And during that minute, all of them made it on board safely.

"W-Wait, what if someone's right behind us?" Morton thought out loud. "We should at least give them a chance!"

"Morton, we don't have time! We have to leave, now!" Iggy declined.

"B-But-"

"Listen to him, Morton!" Wendy disputed. "We may not can save everyone, but we can at least save ourselves! If we just leave them like that, I'm pretty sure they'll understand!"

By the time Ludwig took off, his siblings didn't have the nerve to look back. They were already in enough horror, none of them knowing how much they could take. Thus, they were surprised that they were somehow still conscious.

So instead of looking back, the seven of them just sat beside each other looking down at the floor without even uttering a sound. The only noises came from the castle they were abandoning, and Ludwig controlling his airship.

 _"T-This is one **heck** of a nightmare, indeed... I want out of this..."_

To make sure he wasn't dreaming, he had to pinch himself as hard as he could. "OWWWW!"

"... ... ..." He was met with six stares.

"...Look, I had to do it, okay!?" He defended himself with a glare. "You all would have done the same thing! I don't know if our father will make it or not! It's normal to feel this way!"

 _"...He's right..."_ Larry admitted in his mind. _"None of us want this to be real since nothing like this has ever happened to us before. We're not that much of some spoiled brats we are, are we? I don't any of us deserve to almost lose our father... almost..."_

Another silence followed, only to be interrupted once Lemmy asked a question. "Hey Ludwig,... where are we going...?"

"... ... ..."

"...Ludwig...?"

"... ... ..."

"... ... ...?"

"...He doesn't know..."

They all stared at their youngest sibling, whose eyes gradually became flooded with tears. "...I don't blame him... He's so upset about this not even _he_ knows what to do... We don't even know where we can go at this point... ...Maybe Friday the 13th is real, and pretty soon we're gonna be next. ...I bet almost the whole castle is burned down, now, all because of dad... And it's not even his fault..."

He finally couldn't hold and let the tears flow. "...We should've tried to save him in the first place... But,... we couldn't do a thing!" The poor child buried his head in his folded arms as Wendy attempted to comfort him, despite the fact that she knew that it would not help at all. Yet she was astonished by the fact that he was not screaming like crazy even though he was only five years old.

"Just what did we do to deserve this? We're not that bad, are we?" Iggy mumbled. "We have one parent dead, and now the other is... I don't know... Just what should we do now? None of us even know where we could go until we find a way to save him... if it's even possible..."

Lemmy was one of the few who actually heard his words. He felt sorry for him. So, he began to think of all the places in the universe they could go to until they had a plan. To his own surprise, it didn't take him long to figure something out.

"...Maybe we can go to the Mushroom Kingdom..."

Almost instantly, his siblings minus his oldest shifted their eyes toward him, all with shocked, frozen, and confused facial expressions. Junior halted his crying, Wendy stopped attempting to comfort him, and from that statement, it completely enraged Iggy.

"... ...Lemmy... and I thought _I_ was insane!" He snapped and stood up on his feet. "We almost _died_ back there and now you want us to go to the last place we want!? You mean to tell me that we should just go to the castle of Princess Peach and just tell her straight up!? JUST WHAT WOULD YOU THINK SHE'D SAY!? AND WHAT IF MARIO'S THERE!? HE'S GONNA CONVINCE PEACH THAT THIS IS ALL A TRICK SO THAT DAD CAN TAKE OUT THE KINGDOM! NEXT THING THAT'LL HAPPEN IS THAT WE WILL GET KICKED OUT OR WORSE! THEN, WHAT-"

"Now calm down, alright!" Lemmy shouted back. "Just where else can we go to!? I know the fact that going THERE means that there is an extremely high risk of us getting kicked out of the Mushroom Kingdom, but we can at least try! So, don't think I'm trying to put all of our lives in danger-"

"LISTEN TO YOURSELF!" His taller, green-haired brother interrupted. "IF I WERE YOU, I WOULDN'T COME TO THAT CASTLE BEGGING FOR PEACH AND MARIO FOR THEIR HELP TO BRING DAD BACK IF WE ASK THEM! AND STAYING IN THAT CASTLE UNTIL WE COME UP WITH SOME IDEA WILL RESULT IN AN EXTREMELY ANGRY MARIO WHICH WE LEAD HIM INTO KICKING US OUT! THEN, HE'S GONNA ORDER THE LAME TOAD POLICE TO BANISH US FROM THE KINGDOM! I KNOW YOU'RE TRYING HELP, BUT I'M NOT GONNA GET MY HAND HELD BY _THEM_ OUT OF ALL PEOPLE LIKE A COWARD-"

 _ **"WHAT CHOICE DO WE HAVE!?"**_

All eyes were directed at the turned away Ludwig who was just staring into the night sky as his airship kept proceeding forward.

"... ...Look, Lemmy's right okay? I know going to Mushroom Kingdom is the one thing we don't want, and you guys know it, too. But, let's face it. We have no other way... So, we're gonna have to deal with it... and make a deal with the devil..."

"...But,..." Morton lifted his head. "due to dad's many attempts to take over the Mushroom Kingdom and capture Princess Peach and destroy the plumber himself, I'm pretty sure he considers us the devil..."

"So, we can just forget all the other times we actually _tolerated_ Mario, right?"

"... ..."

"That's what I thought. Mario is not cruel to us at times like those... Though, unfortunately, you guys haven't learn that yet... Unless, you all can correct me if I'm wrong..." He shifted his eyes over to them without rotating his head.

The other seven kids of the King of the Darklands all glanced at each other.

"We understand..." confirmed Iggy.

"We'll deal with it..." nodded Roy.

"We can try..." replied Wendy.

"You're not wrong there, Ludwig..." responded Morton. "...But, what if Mario just decides that we're still considered evil to him no matter what? Maybe he can be nice to us for a while but then all of us a sudden, he starts treating us with disrespect? You guys know how friends can just turn on you just like that. I mean at this point, we can just trust no one like it's April Fools Day. And then pretty soon, Mario will somehow make Peach not trust us as well... She will learn to hate it no matter how hard we try, even though-"

"We have to try anyway, Morton." Larry answered with a sigh. "Even if Mario still doesn't like us, it's not the reason why we're coming there... We're doing this for our father... If the worst was to happen, we can at least hope that Mario isn't there."

As Ludwig continued to direct the airship, he was sunk into his own thoughts. _"Princess... please accept us... We're all relying on you..."_

* * *

 **Instead of the last chapter being short, this one ended up being short instead. I'm barely over a thousand words, not counting the author's note. *Slams head on desk* Just what do I have to say for myself? For those of you who like long chapters, I apologize. I couldn't think of anything else that would actually make sense for this. I was starting to type up something that would happen, but it wouldn't have been accurate enough. So I had no choice but to leave it like this.**

 **Don't worry, though. I'm pretty sure chapter 4 will make up for it. I know it's going to be longer than this because of where things are going for now.**

 **I encourage everyone to review!**

 **Questions:**

 **1\. If you have no choice, would you go to the last place you want in order to save your family?**

 **2\. If you were Mario, would you accept the Koopalings, or would you just reject them?**


	4. Chapter 4: The Mushroom Kingdom

No Such Thing

Chapter 4- The Mushroom Kingdom

 **After three chapters of the Koopalings plus Bowser/Dry Bowser, we finally get introduced to the princess herself to see what she's up to as well as her servants. Thus, we are finally introduced to new characters. And because of that, there is going to be a lot of character developement starting here.**

 **~KF**

* * *

"Morning, Princess Peach."

"Good morning, how'd you sleep?"

The princess of the Mushroom Kingdom always wanted to know how well her servants were doing to express her kindness and courtesy. Back in the day when she first started doing so, they were quite surprised. Nevertheless, at this point they were used to it. To them, she was nicer than most royalties they knew.

"Quite fine, I suppose..." The green Toad responded.

Peach almost immediately noticed the expression on his face that he was attempting to hide. "...Is something wrong?"

"... ...Uh..." Not sure on how to reply, he rolled his eyes to the left.

"...Can you tell me?" Peach was no fool. She had known her servants far too long, it was like as if they were her own family. The royal princess could easily tell if something was bothering them as a result, even if they attempt to disguise their mood.

Remembering that fact, the green Toad chose to just let it out and head straight to the point. "...You know Bowser's Castle has been burned down last night, right?"

An instant later, Peach gasped with great astonishment and confusion. "...B-Burned... down...? Bowser's Castle has been burned down? Is it true? Why? Who done it?"

"I don't know anything. A couple of my fellow servants showed me the news. Literally no one has any idea what happened, who done it, and why." He answered with a sigh. "What I do want to know is about King Bowser himself and his eight children. If they were unfortunate enough, some, or possibly all of them have been-"

"N-no, don't say that..." She shook her head holding her hand out. "We can't give up all hope yet... Does Mario know about this?"

"I can't say..." It was his turn to shake his head. "However, knowing him he's probably on his way here right now. Even if the royal family escaped the fire, we have no idea where they could be... But anyways, I have to go get ready. Toad and Toadette downstairs. They are wishing to discuss this matter with you."

After the servant left, Peach had a mix of emotions. _"Bowser's Castle was burned? I've seen it millions of times and now it's destroyed? Who could have possibly done this and why Bowser out of all people? Since we're still enemies, we should be the ones wanting to burn it down, especially Mario... I hope he gets here soon... I hope Bowser and his family is alright,... wherever they are..."_

* * *

Meanwhile at the town's supermarket, the italian red-capped plumber himself was walking down an aisle whilst pushing a blue shopping kart. One can infer that he was doing his weekly shopping, which was the case. He and his younger brother would go every Friday to get groceries.

He was in the freezer aisle for the time being, apparently searching for something he desired. "Hmm... I'm sure they hadn't ran out, already... Blue Toad told me that they just came in two days ago..."

The savior of the Mushroom Kingdom took a small break from the search as he rotated his head in all directions. Only a few seconds later, he grabbed a cell phone with a red-capped emblem on the back, which was the same color as the entire phone. Going into his contacts, he pressed call and awaited a response.

 _"Hello?"_

 _"You've been gone for almost ten minutes. Where are you?"_

 _"Sorry... Three people wanted to talk to me about something that was rather important. I'm on my way, now. What aisle are you on?"_

 _"Two... And should I be concerned? What's it about?"_

 _"I... I... I'll tell you when we get home. This may startle you as it did me."  
_

 _"Is it that bad?"_

 _"Very... But, I don't wanna give away any details just yet, despite h-how serious the situation is..."_

 _"...You know what, I'm almost done here. We can discuss this in the car. Give me about five minutes..."_

* * *

"SAY WHAT!?"

"...W-Well,..." replied a startled Luigi. "at first I didn't know how I can put it into words so that you wouldn't be so hyped up... I had no choice but to simply tell you straight up in the end..."

"LUIGI, HOW CAN A PERSON BE CALM WHEN THEY HEAR SOMETHING LIKE THIS NO MATTER HOW YOU TELL ME!? IS BOWSER'S FAMILY OKAY!?" He exclaimed.

"...F-F-From what I h-heard from those people who have the daily paper, they're all apparently missing..."

"THEY, WHAT!? YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS!?"

"I... I'm... s-sorry..."

The red-capped older brother buried his face in his hands. "This is just unimagineable... His whole castle was burned to the ground... That castle's huge. I'm pretty sure Bowser had enough common sense to call the firefighters so they could save at least a quarter of the castle..."

"I don't believe it either, brother..." The younger one shook his head in deep frustration. "I also wanna find out about all of Bowser's minions. I read the article and there was nothing about them. Have they gone missing, too? I doubt the fact that every last one of them is,... same with all eight of Bowser's children..."

"...I don't know, Luigi... I just don't know..."

A moment of silence took place. "...S-So, what do you think we're gonna do? Go to Dark Land to investigate?"

"... ...Mabybe..." Mario responded, sighing. "But first, I'd rather for us to see Peach to see what she thinks about it. She probably found out already..."

Luigi stared in front of him. "I can go with that... But, if we're going to see for ourselves, are we actually planning on finding them? ...Or, at least attempt to?" He slightly raised his voice. "If so, then... just why? ...Mario?"

His face was finally free from his gloved hands, though now instead of looking at the man in the passenger seat, he was focused at the ground. "...Bowser's been our arch-nemesis for years, Luigi... In spite of it,... we still manage to tolerate each other, no matter how many times he's attempted to keep the princess to himself and take over the Mushroom Kingdom... He raced with us, he brawled with us in the Smash World, and many other things... Let's just say that he's not always trying to do anything to us. He goes on breaks like those times to either blow off some steam or... whatever the case may be... Nevertheless, he was kind... And I think it's time for us to return the favor... So yeah, we're gonna try to look for all of them, no matter _what_ it takes..."

"...I'm with you..."

"Good." He nodded in conclusion. "Now, let's get to Peach's castle so we can talk. Maybe she can send some of her minions. We need all the help we can get if we're gonna look for them."

* * *

"We're almost there..."

Ludwig was directing the airship once again as they were nearing Castle Toadstool. They managed to reach the kingdom the previous night and were actually planning to head to the castle at that time, until Lemmy thought of the fact that everyone in the castle might be in a slumber and he didn't want to awaken anyone. So, they chose to halt their journey somewhere in the Kingdom where they thought no one would discover them. Fortunately, not a soul showed, which caused Ludwig to thank the stars.

As the castle came into view, mixed emotions swirled around inside the eight children of King Bowser Koopa. Some reminded themselves of all those times when at that point, it was almost time to snatch the princess and let Bowser continue on his plot. Others were thinking of the possible consequences they would receive if Peach and the Mario Bros didn't accept them, even though they heard Ludwig and Lemmy speeches the night before. Though every now and then, they would recall the times that their father and Mario weren't feuding with each other. Regardless, none of them weren't so sure how things were going to end up.

"Can't we just stay at a hotel or something?"

"Our money is most likely burned, Morton..." Iggy responded. "And plus, they'll hate us, anyway..."

"This is the only way, Morton..." Ludwig added. "I know it's probably a lot to take in, but we have to do this... for father..."

"But, what if they don't wanna help?" Wendy thought out loud. "Even if they accept us, what if they still don't want anything to do with us?"

"...I'm afraid we'll have to by force..."

All eyes were on him in a split second. The ones who were still struggling to stay awake were finally sitting up all the way. "...It's the last thing we want, I know... But, the plumber might be the only way we can save him, or at least help us find out how to save him. He's gonna help us whether he likes it or not... If he says no, then I will consider him to be one of the most ignorant inhabitants of this world..."

"He's right..." Roy couldn't agree more. "If Princess Peach and/or Green Stache' lives were in our hands, he would definitely grow angry if we have the nerve to say no. There's no difference in this case..."

"It's settled, then..." Ludwig confirmed. "Let's hope it's gonna be the best case scenario."

Larry gulped nervously.

Bowser Jr. had his head leaning over the airship to get a good look at his arch-nemesis' Kingdom. "...Huh...? Uh... guys?"

Subsequently pointing, the rest of the Koopalings, minus Ludwig walked to his location.

"...Well, what is going on down there?" Wendy questioned. "I'm not surprised about the mushroom people staring at us surprisingly, but... something tells me... that we were... apparently expected..."

"...Expected?" The blue-haired son of Bowser was perplexed.

"...Why are they taking pictures...?" asked a dumbfounded Morton. "And now I can barely here some of them all the way up here. I can tell that they're very loud, indeed... Funny how I didn't know we were that famous, these people are following our every move. Wonder if they know about what happened last night and wondering where we are and stuff? Do you think that they actually care about us after all? What do you think-"

"You're running off again, Morton..." Iggy groaned. "You're running off again... But, you do have a point. They've probably heard about our castle being burned down or something. However, what I wanna know is if they heard what happened to..." He sighed hanging his head down. "...I still need to get my thoughts together..."

"You should, we all know that you can be too insane to get your ownself together, let alone your own thoughts." His youngest, older brother joked without smiling. "Especially, with your inventions."

"Guys, quiet!" Ludwig commanded. "We're almost at the castle and I know that we are going to be bombarded with almost every last Toad living in the castle. We need to figure this out..."

With that being said, the Koopaling began lowering the ship to the castle grounds. The fact that some of the Mushroom Kingdom's inhabitants weren't already shooting at them with their cannons. Even if they did, they wouldn't fight back. The eight of them were already in enough trouble. If that was the case, the best they could do was to dodge all cannon fire. Yet if there was too much cannon fire to handle, they would most likely be shot down.

"...I guess we can just land a safe distance and walk the rest of the way..." Lemuel suggested.

"And get trapped by Princess Peach's servants to answer a million questions?" Morton folded his arms. "I'd say we rise this airship back up until they think we aren't here anymore. Then, we come back unnoticingly and end up at the castle."

"We don't have time for that! We just have to deal with it!" Larry shouted. "I don't think they're just going to give up like that! Let's hope for the best!"

* * *

Peach was in her throne room, glancing out a large window to past the time. After all, thanks to the information one of her servants provided that morning, she indeed had a lot on her mind. The Royal Family's status was of course the main question to ask. By the time she was finished with her breakfast, she looked to see that it was all over the news. She said in her thoughts that it was possibly getting ready to cross over to other worlds, like Yoshi's Island, or Sarassaland.

 _"The children... They are all too young to just... They must be okay... Nobody deserves this, not even Bowser of all people. We are his most hated enemies. If we weren't to attack him, who would? This is all too much to take in..."_

"Miss Princess Peach?" A knock had what she was thinking. "Toad and Toadette have arrived."

"Okay..." She replied, slowly stepping towards the door. Upon opening it, she met the rather sad expressions of the twins, instead of the usual, more cheerful ones. "...Please come in..."

Closing the door, Toad decided to be the one to start off the conversation after nearly a ten second silence took place. "...Do you think they're okay?"

"...I don't know..." The princess of the Mushroom Kingdom shook her head. "...I'm really worried about the children..."

"Well, all I have to say is that I heard that the police didn't find anyone... yet..." Toadette brought up.

"That only makes things worse..." The pink-dressed female hung her head down. "What if they... they _didn't_ make it?"

"Then, the Dark Lands would enter a great downfall..." Toad predicted. "The thing is, who could have possibly done it?"

"It's really ridiculous to me." His sister added. "If it were anyone, it would be us, especially Mario..."

"Speaking of, is he near here?" The pink dressed woman asked

"We've just called him, said he's less than five minutes away..." Toad responded. "...This is just unbelievable... We should volunteer to help..."

"That's a good idea." Peach had to agree with a nod. "Let's go downstairs to-"

"Princess!" Another servant called out to her running. He stopped to take a breath, banging loudly on the large, brown door. "An airship has been spotted! B-Bowser's children... T-They're here!"

* * *

After rushing to the front door of the large castle, the eight kids were standing just outside said castle the entire time with blank faces. To them, they found it rather surprising that not a soul was asking a billion questions thus far. Yet, a couple of them had a feeling that it would happen in the future.

 _"Oh my..."_ The Princess couldn't find the energy to move upon seeing the victims of the incident.

Iggy had to think to himself as well, as he and the rest of his siblings were experiencing the feeling of nervousness once more. _"Okay, we were able to stay here for at least a minute... So far, so good... But, I'm stil not getting my hopes up..."_

Ludwig decided to first one to start speaking. "G-Greetings, P-Princess Peach..." His hands were behind his shell.

"H-Hello..." At the time, she couldn't think of anything to say.

"...Y-You've probably heard... w-what happened last night,... I assume..."

"Y-Yes..." She nodded stuttering. "...M-My servants told me everything that happened this morning... A-Are you all alright?"

"W-Were fine... We t-thank you for your courtesy. Everything's... ...okay for now..." He answered. _"...Here it comes..."_

She was so astonished by the fact that the Koopalings were standing right in front of her after what they had gone through the night before, she almost completely forgot about the King of the Dark Lands himself. "...Y-Your father... Where is he? Is he okay? How did it all happen, and why?"

"... ... ..."

"Princess, I suggest we continue this conversation inside. People are starting to come, now, including many reporters." The same servant who informed her of the Koopalings' arrival suggested.

"That would be a good idea, thank you. I'll try to calm them down."

As everyone else minus the two Toad servants entered the castle, Princess Peach calmly stepped to the increasingly large crowd. "I'm sorry, I'm going to have to ask you all to come back later if you want. But, we have some things to take care of right now."

They all obeyed.

* * *

"...And that's why we came to you of all people..."

Ludwig finished the long explanation to why they were in the Mushroom Kingdom, and what had happened to their remaining parent. One knew that it was hard for him to even think about it without the feeling of sadness, let alone tell his arch-nemesis's princess.

Thus, poor Peach felt sorry for the seventeen year old. Unless one was blind, she was clearly upset as well. Toad, Toadette, and the toad servants who were in her throne room all had similar expressions.

 _"...H-He burned the whole castle down?"_ Toad thought in disbelief. _"H-His mind and body has been taken over?"_

"...I... I am terribly sorry, everyone..." Peach shook her head with a frown. "I... I do not know what to say... It's really hard to believe, but... I-I'm sorry..."

"W-We don't want you to worry, too." Iggy sai. "W-We just wanna find a way to end all of this."

"We just w-want our father back, nothing more." added Roy.

"Princess Peach!"

As before, she got up and answered the somewhat loud knock on the door. When she did, it was much to her gratitude when she saw the person she looked forward to see all morning.

"Mario..."

* * *

 **Sorry, I had to end it there. But, it was better than the last chapter it terms of length. Though, I'm not sure how long the next chapter will be. It depends on how long the upcoming conversation will go and if anything else happpens.**

 **Questions:**

 **1\. Do you think everything's going to go along great, or their would be some problems along the way?**

 **2\. What would the whole Mushroom Kingdom's reaction may be if Mario accepts the Koopalings?**

 **So, what do you like/dislike? Favorite parts? I encourage everyone to review!**


	5. Chapter 5: Acceptance

No Such Thing

Chapter 5- Acceptance

 **Well, here comes a big moment for the Koopalings and Mario. Will he accept the Koopalings and be interested in helping them out? Or, he would reject them altogether?**

 **Let's find out in this chapter, as all the facts will be included so that it'll be easier to judge.**

 **~KF**

* * *

"...Luigi..."

It was as if time had frozen for Bowser's kids. Half of them had mouths wide opened while they and the rest almost immediately paused at what they were doing prior to the Mario Bros. stepping into the throne room.

Lemmy gulped without even having the courage to blink. _"And so, the curtains open... I was just thinking that things aren't going to be as bad as we all thought, but of course, I had to be the one who jinxes everything... Way to go, me..."_

"We were waiting for you." Peach smiled nicely, taking a look back at Bowser's daughter and sons. "Instead of us finding the children, the children found us. I've already talk to them. They want to help their father so badly, and they will not rest until they have a plan."

 _"And I bet they're over here so we can help them."_ Mario thought to himself. Though before he could start speaking to them, he couldn't help but notice the reactions of the Koopalings when they had seen him and Luigi walk in the room. They look scared, shocked, and a couple of them looked a bit angry.

Ludwig was the only one out of the bunch to have a blank stare. _"Well, here he is... We're already prepared for the worst... But this is not about him, nor the entire Mushroom Kingdom... This is about our father, so Mario better not decline us or else he'll be forced to help us out."_

The door was closed after yet another Toad joined the bunch. Only this time, not only he was much older than the rest of the Toads that were in Peach's throne room, but he was also the princesses' attache, as well as the fact that he was like her close relative.

"Sorry, I'm late." Toadsworth apologized clearing his throat. "I had to go to the bathroom."

"Actually, you're right on time." Peach smiled nodding. "Mario and Luigi just came in so you don't have to worry. Anyways,..." Her mood saddened in an instant looking at Bowser's offspring. "I heard what the children had to go through last night and what happened to their father... They don't deserve this..."

He adjusted his eyeglasses. "Ah, yes. I heard it all on the news, children. I am terribly sorry."

"N-No, don't apologize... We came here for answers so we would find a way to save him." Iggy held his hand out. _"That being said, Mario better not be selfish and cooperate with us. He's going to be our new pillar for the time being."_

"Of course I have to apologize. You now have to save your father's life and I don't even know how much time he has left. Do you at least know where he is, now?"

"Well," Wendy thought. "all we know is that he's probably not at the castle, anymore..."

"He could be anywhere, then..." Toadette imagined the whole universe. "And knowing that Mario is his adversary, the Mushroom Kingdom would probably be either the first or last place he'll look for you all."

 _"And, she said it..."_

"We may have to defend the kingdom, then. He will _not_ attack here..." Mario took a few steps forward.

"... ... ..."

"... ... ...?" The other brother of Toadette was puzzled. Mario wasn't the only one to notice their facial expressions. "Hey,... is something the matter? Why do you all look like that?"

That was what made everyone else in the room face the Koopalings to see for themselves.

"...Are you guys okay?" The Toad servant who allowed everyone in raised an invisible eyebrow.

Peach looked confused and worried. "Are you all lost in your thoughts about everything that happened?"

"...I think I know what's bothering them..." Mario thought out loud. "They think that we're gonna kick them out..."

All eyes were on him. "...?"

"What do you...?" Peach trailed off.

"Look at their eyes..." He stared into the eight pairs of eyes that showed different emotions from the others. "Their eyes are saying that they have no idea to get their father back... Their eyes are saying that they don't know if he's going to make it... But most importantly, their eyes are saying that they should know if they should trust us... trust me..." He mumbled the last word.

"... ... ..." For the most part, the beings that heard Mario's explanation were speechless, especially the Koopalings themselves. Some thought of replying to him, yet the idea was quickly scrapped knowing that it was the truth all along. Like Ludwig said back in his airship the previous night, it was like making a deal with the devil.

Nonetheless, Mario couldn't blame him. If a similar situation was to happen to him and Luigi, they would have to think about trusting Bowser to be their aid. After all, there were enemies for a reason.

Moving closer to the savior of the pink-dressed female, Roy finally had the nerve to talk. "No doubt you're right, plumber. Our family and Peach's family had known each other before we were even thought of, and the Mushroom Kingdom and the Dark Lands would always clash thanks to his plans of kidnapping Peach and wanting domination of this place. How can one not be angry about that, unless you actually _want_ your home to be taken over!? Look at you, you and your brother probably want to fight us right now!"

"Now, wait a minute-"

Morton didn't want his voice to be heard. "Yeah, and don't even think about tricking Peach into thinking that we're gonna use you to save dad just so that we can take over the Mushroom Kingdom! Since you can't trust us, I am surprised we've even made it this far!"

Ludwig was finally enraged. "We should have never came here. We were thinking about whether, or not we should actually trust you. Due to your tone of voice when you said that you have to defend your home, it sounded like you don't want anything to do with us... You are our last option, and you're gonna help whether you like it or not-"

"DANG IT, SHUT UP FOR A SECOND! Can you read my mind!? You don't know what I'm thinking about all of this! It's not like it's your fault that Bowser is not himself! If one of our parents were in the same position as you, we would come to him if it's Luigi and I's only option! What about the times we've actually spent time with each other!? Last time I checked none of you had amnesia! We don't have to have bad blood, now!"

"... ... ..."

Their mouths were wide open, even the ones who are not the Koopalings.

 _"Well, what do you know?"_ Ludwig said in his mind. _"There's no reason to just turn back, it's like what I said earlier before we came here... He's absolutely right... We are so foolish that I think we're forgetting that Mario might be our last hope. He's already proven to be intelligent and a great hero. Why should we distrust him now, just because we're enemies? ...Or in this case,... frenemies?"_

A long silence took place, which was what triggered the eldest son of the King of Dark Lands to speak up. "Y-You're right... After seeing what was happening last night, the Mushroom Kingdom was the first idea to pop in Lemmy's head. We were all disagreeing at first, but I took the time to think about it... You may be our foe, but it does not mean it has to overshadow the times we were acquaintances, or at least tolerable to each other. ...I believe we all owe you a sincere apology..."

Lemmy couldn't agree more. "That's what we should be doing. If a solution is here, we'll find it. We're not going to give up hope until we find an answer. We're all sorry, and we hope you find it in your heart to forgive us..."

"Yeah," Junior had to nod. "if we just blow it off and leave, there would be no way to help dad. We don't have a choice."

"Our land would be going downhill greatly if dad doesn't... if it's too late... Therefore, we are not going to hold a grudge against you, your brother, or Princess Peach." Ignatius was in.

Luigi formed a smile. "I guess we're all in the same boat, then. We can all be on the same side. We're all in this. Together."

Peach nodded with an even brighter smile. "It's lovely to see that everyone is on the same team like Luigi said. Me, the Mario Bros., and everyone in this castle are going to do our best. We'll help you in anyway we can. We're here for you, alright?"

One by one, grins slowly became noticeable on the Koopalings' faces.

"I'll take that as a yes." She held her hand over her mouth, chuckling slightly. "Now with that out of the way, it's time to think about what we can do."

* * *

 **I actually thought this chapter was going to be a bit shorter than the rest. In spite of it being a bit longer that I predicted, it's still short. Apologies to the ones who like long chapters. Next chapter should make up for it.**

 **So, it looks like Mario would be on their side. (As we all expected.) And it looks like it will be for a long time. So stick around to see what happens in the future!**

 **Questions:**

 **1\. If you were to go to the last person you want for help, how long will it take you to trust him or her?**

 **2\. It's been five chapters. Starting this one, I will ask who is your favorite character thus far. So,... who is it and why?**

 **Like/dislike? Criticism? I encourage all fans of the Koopalings and the Mario Bros. to review!**


	6. Chapter 6: The Announcement and Plotting

No Such Thing

Chapter 6 **-** Flashbacks

 **Alright, here's chapter 6. So far, including this and the past five chapters, I have thirty-four chapters planned. Therefore, unless I think of new ideas, that's how many chapters it will have. The chapter total may rise, drop, or stay the same. I'll probably think of new ideas, anyway.**

 **~KF**

* * *

"...We are planning on helping the Koopalings in any way possible."

Princess Peach was only out of the castle for a little over a minute when she was already bombarded by the paparazzi that emerged to the front gate the second she was nearing it. It had been at least twenty minutes since they last showed. As much as they respected her personal space, they desired to get information from her. Plus, if some of them weren't that obsessed with her, they still had to do their job.

Standing between two of her many servants, Peach had to face the reactions of the press. Since she and everyone who was involved in the incident had already discussed it back in the throne room, she was basically prepared for what was to come.

In her heart, she didn't care what people thought. It was the Koopalings' father, and it would be the next big then if the children end up losing them.

Along with the few dozen of reporters, fans and neighbors who lived nearby the castle gasped with emotions of confusion, astonishment, and occasionally anger. The latter feeling began to appear in some.

"Wait, what!?"

"You're going to help Bowser's children!?"

"Did I hear right!?"

"Are you serious!?"

"You're going to work with your kidnapper's kids!?"

"Is Mario going to be involved!?"

The Princess of the Mushroom Kingdom knew she had to shake off the negative reaction. If they had a different opinion, it was easy for her to comprehend. Regardless, they can't change her mind. The decision was up to her.

 _"Looks like being a leader can be good. Bowser's life is in our hands."_ She thought to herself. "The children need help. I don't know how much time Bowser has left. Mario, Luigi, and others are going to help the children find him and hopefully bring him back. It will take some time, but Bowser's the only parent the children have. So, please do not plan to attack them."

Ignoring more questions, the couple of Toad servants standing by her slowly made their way back to the front door.

"Princess," The one on the left got her attention. "Are you sure we can pull this off?"

She answered with a nod. "We have to. We're their only hope..."

* * *

While they were on their way back, the Koopalings, Toad, and Toadette were told to stay in the room until the princess returns with the Mario Bros. and Toadsworth, who were waiting at the door for Peach. Toadsworth questioned Mario to learn the reason on why he wouldn't come to the press. He shook his head by saying that he would end up facing a million more question than Peach on why they chose the option to help the unfortunate princes and princess of the Dark Lands.

As for the ones in the throne room. They were currently going through a somewhat awkward silence. Every time one looked at another, he or she, as well as the starer would almost immediately rotate their heads away to find something else to take a glance at, to avoid making the scene more awkward then it already was.

Larry was one of the few who was too busy thinking to himself about the previous event. _"...Hmm... Should I start getting my hopes up? ...We're actually teaming up with... the enemy... How long is this gonna last?"_

Speaking of the red-capped person, he, his brother, and princess were brought in the room by a Toad, causing all eyes to be on them.

"Well, I'd say we're good with the public for now." Luigi opinionized. "We have talked on the way here and finally came up with the first step of our plan. We are planning to go to Bowser's Castle so that we can investigate for clues and to find answers so that we can think of a next part to our plan."

"That being said," It was Toadsworth's turn to face the crowd. "we are going to leave near sundown. If we leave at this moment, we would be weighed down with way more questions than the Mushroom Kingdom. Is that okay with you kids?"

Iggy nodded as a signal. "I can work with that. But, by the time we get there it would be dark. We probably need to bring flashlights if we're gonna find anything there."

"But, dad burned the castle to the ground." Morton recalled stepping closer. "It will be very hard to find information."

"If it's a way to get dad back, I wouldn't care if it took us the whole night." Lemmy spoke. "It would be worth it if we find _anything_."

"Lemmy's right." Ludwig had to agree. "Besides, this is basically a matter of life or death for father. One wrong move and he could stay in the condition he is in forever. That's why I said 'life or death'. He wouldn't ever be the same..."

Silence. Ludwig and his seven younger siblings slowly eyed the floor in sadness, while at least half of them tried to hide their expressions so that their 'friends' wouldn't have to be that concerned of what they thought.

If one admitted this, it would be absurd to them, especially the princess of the Mushroom Land. "Things are going to be okay. We will find a way to save the real Bowser that's inside. ...You know what they say, it's what's inside that counts. The outside doesn't matter. We don't need a... 'fake' Bowser here. Don't lose all hope, yet."

In spite of her being true, it did not change Jr.'s worried look. The poor child was too deep in his thoughts to pay attention to her.

* * *

 _"HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JUNIOR!"_

 _"...W-What? ...Y-You all remembered?" Jr. was very stunned. It was his fifth birthday, which was big for his whole family, mainly for the current king of the Dark Lands. It was a wonder why he and his siblings were acting strange to him the whole day. He thought that he should have taken it as a clue that they actually did remembered his birthday, after all._

 _"Jr.," Bowser sighed happily walking to his youngest born. "I already have seven kids that are older than you and I have never forgotten any of their birthdays. What makes you different? And besides, you are my last child, so I'm going to be your father and do this just for you. You might have never met your mom in person, but it doesn't mean that it's impossible to fill in that blank space."_

 _That meant a lot to him. Tears were now forming in his eyes. Since that day, Junior knew that his father would always stand beside him, no matter what. "T-Thanks, dad."_

 _Subsequently jumping into his arms, he felt that he needed to find a way to repay him._

 _"Hey Junior, come here!"_

 _Hearing his youngest, older brother's voice, he jumped back down and wandered over to him so that he can see his birthday present for him._

 _"I've tried painting a picture of you, but... let's just say that I should just draw next time."_

 _"...Don't worry, I still like it! I'm glad that you remembered my birthday, that's what really matters now." He responded to Lawrence's nervous grin._

 _Only a few seconds afterwards, he didn't know at the time that his one painting inspired him to paint more often._

* * *

Now in his mind, he could paint a picture of his next birthday with all his family outside the castle with him playing around and taking time off their day to spend it with him. His father would be a big part of that picture. That is, if he and his seven older siblings get him back to the way he was before. Dry Bowser was a nightmare that the real Bowser had to wake up from. Unfortunately, he wouldn't be able to do so on his own.

All those times Bowser has been a big part of their lives, especially after their late mother. He took great care of all of them and was always there, so there was no doubt that Junior and the others thought it was time to return the favor.

"...I-I'm not giving up..." He chose to be the one who broke the rather long silence. "I'm never giving up. We're gonna do this. W-We're the only ones who can save him..."

Peach smiled, relieved that they were all agreeing with her and deciding that they can make their plan work. "I'd say we're all in, then. We'd better start preparing soon. For now, you are welcomed to receive a tour around the castle if you like. I can get a couple of my servants."

 _"A tour around the castle?"_ Despite being in Peach's castle a countless amount of times, Ludwig and the others had never seen the entire interior of the castle. The only part of the castle, they've ever seen was the throne room, which they've already done when they've trapped Peach in that cake in Bowser's attempt for domination, which obviously failed. It was a first for them. "That would be appreciated..."

 _"Well, here's a chance to be nosy..._ _"_ Curious Wendy thought to herself. "I think I'd like that. We've never seen the looks inside the castle before. We're all over it."

* * *

 **Aaaaaaaaaand the word count for this is almost the same as the last one. It was not longer because I didn't have that many ides for it. I think I've really messed up... and because of me saying this, criticism is greatly appreciated.**

 **Like/dislike? I encourage all Bowser fans to review!**

 **Questions:**

 **1\. Larry wondered how long the now friendly relationship he and his siblings' have with Mario last. What do you guys think?**

 **2\. If they manage to save Bowser, will this effect the rivalry between him and Mario, or not at all?**


	7. Chapter 7: We Want To

No Such Thing

Chapter 7- We Want To

 **Okay, I've checked the word count for the last two chapters, and I realized that chapter 6 is longer than chapter 5 only by a single word... Yeah, never done that before...**

 **Besides the word count, I wanted to give a shout out to "The Blue Tigrex" for pointing something out in his review from the last chapter. He caught me right on time. Had it not been for him, this story would have a potentially big plot hole that could mess up the storyline. With that being said, thanks again!**

 **Onto the chapter itself, the Koopalings are going to be given a tour around the castle, later preparing to head back to the Dark Lands for only a certain amount of time. For the most part, this chapter should be fairly easy for me to write, as long as I don't go OOC with the koopalings and having this chapter too bland. Thus, it is why I'm introducing a new character in this. I'm not revealing his name, but a few hints should have you thinking.**

 **~KF**

* * *

A morning run was sometimes a good way to past the time, especially if you're somewhat bored and don't have anything else to do. Plus, it's good to get a good exercise every once in a while.

For this certain being, those were the exact reasons on why he was taking his free time to get a breath of fresh air as he was dashing about. It was somewhat cloudy, yet not enough to predict that rain was going to come. Adding onto it, said clouds were expected to clear up later in the afternoon. Regardless of that, he was taking the low risk of spending sometime out in the open.

Although, there was one thing that was different. He took a few seconds to observe that there weren't many of his species around unlike all the other days he had taken a morning run. The only time they would normally not be around if a storm was coming, unless something was horribly wrong.

For this character, he didn't think of it that way as he nimbly shrugged it off. He thought that just because he was out and about didn't mean that everybody else was. Maybe some slept late, or maybe some weren't planning to be out until later in the day when the clouds would clear up. Though for the latter, that same scenario would apply at times, and at least a few more members of his race would be around to greet him. Nonetheless, every day was different. One would never know of what was going to come.

It didn't take the male long to smell smoke. Almost immediately it had him concerned. A forest fire, perhaps? In his land it hasn't happened in years, so at that moment he knew that something was up. That being thought of, he proceeded to run faster. Nervousness and wonder was sinking rapidly into his system. Last thing he wanted was his land to be attacked. The smell was getting stronger to the point when he could view it in person. By the time he got closer to the source of said smoke, the sight was anything but beautiful.

"Whaaaaaa?"

One look at the forest, and some trees were already being burned down for a reason he had yet to find out. And it wasn't gradually becoming worse. His guess was correct. There was a forest fire, and the land's inhabitants were seeing escaping before the forest would take them with it. Obviously for this particular character, it was a lot to take in. Why was it happening? Is someone behind this? Who?

Once again taking another risk, he refused to slow down his speed, let alone turn around for safety. Instead, it was the last thing he desired to do. He was the main hero of his world. Basically, refusing to at least find out why the forest was ignited was betraying his own land to him. He needed to do something.

Getting to the forest at long last, he thought he saw something. Leaning closer to get a better look, his mouth was then wide-opened when he saw what, or who was responsible for the forest fire in the first place.

* * *

 _"Larger than I thought... No doubt this reminds me of father... Only this time it has a different personality..."_

Ludwig was speaking to himself in his mind as he and his siblings were being given their offered tour around the castle as Peach suggested. Besides the few comments that he and his siblings would make, it was generally silent. They were still affected by the fact that they and Mario were trusting each other and about their doomed father. Nevertheless, sadness and astonishment had to pushed to the side for the time being.

"And this is the dining room. If I'm not mistaken, the dining room is similar to this. Am I correct?" One of the two Toads questioned.

All stepping in, the Koopalings didn't have to take five seconds to think as they almost instantly realized that he was not kidding. The dining room was like the one from their home, though they only had the same color scheme. The large table was brown, yet at a lighter shade. And the walls contained a brighter red then the room at Bowser's Castle.

Most of the royal king's children sensed the sadness coming. It was the last time they've seen before the major incident occured that night. Judging by the looks on their faces, the servant of Princess Toadstool chose to exit the area and resumed the tour. "My apologies. I don't mean to make you all more depressed than you already are. We shall keep moving if you please."

 _"Please do..."_ Wendy said in her thoughts. "That would be fine. Let's move on."

It was all that the Toad needed to hear prior to proceeding. _"What a fool I am to bring them here of all places... I'd better start thinking of the better places they can visit in this castle. If we're going to start building trust, bringing them to the dining room would be the last thing we want, at least until... until they save their loved one..."_

 _"Now that he mentioned it,"_ Roy had to think. _"all there is are ashes. That dinner was the very last meal we had before the whole castle was burned down. I miss not only my dad, I actually kinda miss those chefs getting it wrong. I've missed them not putting enough hot sauce on my meat so that I would yell and threaten to harm him. ...And I'll regret saying this, but I'm actually starting to miss Wendy's temper tantrums whenever her meals are perfect enough for her... Yet, she's the only being that's still here right now..."_

* * *

"...Those kids don't deserve this..." Mario shook his head bringing in a few flashlights. "As soon as they are finished with their tour around the castle, we are leaving."

"You know I'm coming with you Mario." Peach wandered closer to him. "Those kids are hurt. And if they're going to trust us, the least we can do is help. Toadsworth is going to look after the castle while we're gone."

"And that is why I'm here." Toadsworth nodded with hands behind his back. "If Bowser chooses to come to the kingdom while you guys are at his land, I'll have control."

"I am grateful for your help, Toadsworth." The princess of the Mushroom Kingdom smiled.

"Anytime." He found that Mario had a somewhat confounded expression on his face. "...Is something wrong, Mr. Mario? You seem to be puzzled about something..."

"I am..." He promptly answered. "I was just thinking about one of those times I was battling with King Koopa and... and... Junior... I-I don't know why I'm suddenly thinking of that time out of all times he kidnapped Peach, but, there's something... about that battle that just stands out from the rest... Something to do with Junior..."

"If it's really important to remember what exactly happened, then you should probably speak with him about it." His long-time friend suggested. "...Come to think of it, I see where you're going with this. Something seems odd... and it was not just the fact that Junior was involved because I'm pretty sure he was before, and that was not long ago... Do you think it'll provide something for us?"

"Not sure..." Mario was in his own thinking pose tapping his foot. "Though, it can be if we keep pondering on this. If it's anything to help Bowser, we can't just let it ago. We'll speak with his youngest son to see what he thinks, but it's been a while since that battle has happened. I don't know if he remembers it very well, yet since it has something to do with them and not us, he probably remembers it more than we do in a way, even though the kid's only five years old..."

"That other time you've battled with him was only a couple months ago." Luigi recalled with a raised finger. "I was there, and so were Blue Toad and Yellow Toad. ...Or at least almost fought him. We did on those airships, but not when he was with his father."

"You're right." His only brother couldn't agree more. "We were getting ready to fight him again after we defeated Bowser that night. Knowing what we've done to him however, was enough to make him think that brawling with us was a bad idea. He had no choice but to retreat. Asking him of what he knew about the first time I've battled with him with his parent is our best option. This may have a large effect of what we should do..."

* * *

"Princess Peach! Mario! Luigi! Please, wait! We still have many questions to ask!"

The rumor that the Mario crew was planning on heading to the Dark Lands with the Koopalings was proven to be true as they were now being seen heading towards Ludwig's airship for transportation.

As he said before, Toadsworth was standing directly in front of the castle doors, his right hand over his head to observe everyone preparing to leave the castle, ignoring all the paparazzi that showed up the second the pink-dressed female stepped out of her castle.

"I'm sorry." She calmly responded to the female reporter of channel five news, not paying any attention to the many camera flashes at her. "I'm afraid we don't have enough time. We're leaving the Mushroom Kingdom to help King Koopa's children."

"B-But, princess! The people have a right to know!" The purple toad called with her hand out, attempting to catch up with her. Unfortunately, the few Toad guards didn't allow her or her fellow reporters to take a single step inside the gate.

Bowser's children were already on board, waiting for the others to arrive. Due to the situation they were in. Not a word was found so that it can be spoken. That is, until Larry refused to let silence get the better of them. "...Are we really doing this, you guys?"

He didn't receive an almost immediate response. In spite of that, it only proved to be a really good question. One would perceive it as a dream, even though it was not of course. But trusting the enemy was the only option they had, which was why they chose to play along.

"...Trust me..." The first one who beat the rest in answering Larry was Iggy. "If there was another way, I'd be all over it. Last night I've expressed that I wished to not trust Mario... Now, it almost seems like we have to force ourselves to, or else we would choose to give up our last choice... But we've known him for years. He shouldn't be _that_ unpredictable."

"Iggy's right." Ludwig nodded without looking at any of his remaining family. "Though, we are not forcing ourselves to trust that plumber, we are wanting to trust him. Nobody's making us to like him. Nobody's forcing us to be on the same side with him. We can just leave them right now. We're already on the airship. We can abandon them any time we please. Despite him possibly being the only person we could come to, our father is still out there... We _want_ to keep going, we _want_ to come to the Mushroom Kingdom, and we _want_ to trust Mario. If we're not making ourselves to trust him we _desire_ to..."

All eyes were on each other, realizing that what their eldest brother had said was true. It wasn't anybody that was forcing them to have Mario as their aid, it was themselves that _want_ to be on the same side as him.

"Alright, we're ready."

Mario, along with Luigi, Peach, Toad, Toadette, and the Toad Bros. (who showed up at the castle about an hour ago) proved to be finally ready for their departure. Yes, it was way more beings that were boarding on such a small airship unlike the ones Bowser had, but it wasn't overcrowded. Yet, some of the Koopalings had to scoot over for ones that requested a seat.

Once every traveler was in place, it was Ludwig's signal to take off. The second he did, lots of pictures were taken and videos were recorded so that not only the Mushroom Kingdom would see, but the whole, clustered world would as well.

It was quite obvious that the story behind the predicament would be even bigger the minute it hits the news.

* * *

 **...Have you guys noticed that I'm publishing every chapter later in the day? It's almost midnight here. I** **apologi** **ze. I'm kinda behind, here. It's almost Wednesday, now. But, better be on time then late, right?**

 **Like/dislike? I encourage everyone to review.**

 **Questions:**

 **1\. In the scene with only the Mushroom Kingdom residents, Mario appears to remember a past battle. Do you guys realize where he was going with what he said?**

 **2\. Who's the new mystery character from the first scene?**


	8. Chapter 8: Investigaton

No Such Thing

Chapter 8- Investigation

 **I'm expecting this chapter to be at least as long as chapter 4 because of where the story is going with this. Everyone heading back to the scene where the entire incident took place. Who's ready?**

 **Also, I can see that someone got the last question right from the last chapter. But, I'm not telling when he will appear in the story. It could be in the next chapter, half-way through, near the end, or in this very chapter.**

 **Anyways, enjoy part 8 of "No Such Thing"!**

 **~KF**

* * *

Sunset.

If you were traveling through the clouds, you had the opportunity to get a better view of the sun setting for the day. Almost no one would not enjoy that sight. You might had taken a few pictures or just simply stopped whatever you were doing just to stare at it. It was all that was needed to fill your heart. For some, it was just enough to make their day, even if you had a hard day. The ones on Ludwig's airship should have felt grateful that they had left earlier than intended.

Unfortunately in this case, it wasn't enough to make up for what happened the night before for the Koopalings. They weren't thinking about the beautiful sunset, let alone watch it. In fact, most, if not all were extremely nervousness of where they were going in the first place. That happened to be that very scene where the catastrophe began, Bowser's Castle. Some preferred not to visit there because of that reason, while the rest wished Ludwig could drive faster so that they can arrive there as soon as possible. Mario requested that he could drive instead, though the blue-haired Koopaling declined.

When they were nearing the castle, the ship gradually became quiet as everyone on board halted their speaking one-by-one. If one was watching, he or she would infer that it was a sign that they were being stricken with different forms of fear. That was apparent to the ones that were on board, which was why they remained quiet.

 _"...Dang it, I almost forgot already... Since no one's saying anything right now, I think this will be a good time. We're in the Dark Lands now, anyway..."_ Mario suddenly said in his mind. He turned to the Koopa King's youngest child. "Junior, can I ask you something?"

Slightly startled by the first voice heard in some time. The look-alike of his father faced him. "...S-Sure..."

"Okay, this may be out of the blue," He began. "But, do you remember that battle me, you, and Bowser had some time ago? ...N-Not the first time when we were on vacation, but the other time..."

The memory actually took the kid a while to recall. "...Y-You mean when we were at the castle...? ...Kinda... Dad told me that I was four at the time... Why...?"

"...T-To be honest," He took some moments to stare at the floor of Ludwig's airship. "I'm not really sure... Me and the others were discussing back at the princess's castle... There's something about that battle that just gets to me... I-I don't know exactly, but it seems for some reason that battle... is standing out... like it wants to prove to me that something was odd about it... I just can't lay my finger on it... And I don't expect you to remember that much of it either, since you've said you were only four... Peach doesn't remember that time as much, either."

"...What do you mean, really? ...Was it about dad?" He was more confused than ever, yet he was starting to see the picture, though it was only as if it was blurry. Mario was right. He was too young to remember the whole thing. Bowser should be the one to remember the most and not him, Peach, nor Mario since he was the oldest out of all of them. But, if it was about him, he was for sure beginning to recall at least a tiny bit on what was Mario speaking of.

"I... think so..." He said in response.

"...Everyone... we're here..."

After all eyes were on Ludwig, they quickly became focused on the castle. More specifically, the castle that was burned to the ground. Some of the children pondered on looking at it or not, yet they continued eyeing the sight. Even if they were dying at old age, they would have remembered iy as if it was the night before.

It was a terrible sight, indeed. The infamous Bowser's Castle that represented the Dark Lands was destroyed, the fire made it collapsed as pieces of it were being ignited and burned down. As for the Mario crew, all had their mouths wide-opened. They couldn't believe their eyes as they saw how bad the damages were. The castle was on the news that morning, but not one of them actually seen it. Now, everyone was perceiving it in person.

"...O-Oh, dear... T-The castle... It's... d-demolished..." Toadette didn't even have the nerve to gasp. "...I-I didn't know it was this bad... This seems so surreal..."

"I can't even blink..." Her only sibling appended. "This castle surviving this long and now look at it... To it being suddenly destroyed, I'd speak for everyone when by saying that it's a lot to stomach in. And there's obviously more emotions for the Koopalings." He muttered the final sentence.

There were still quite a few reporters and citizens of the Dark Lands at the scene of the event, mostly with worried looks as the former continued on questioning the police on the matter and what were their intentions. And when the first one recognized the ones that were beginning to exit Ludwig's airship, there was no doubt that he left them alone, let alone promptly ask questions.

He was ignored by many, with the exception of Princess Peach and Mario who simply told him and his fellow reporters that they were not giving up on the royal family and that they knew what they were doing.

Lemuel and Lawrence Koopa eyed them, the latter whispering to his elder brother. "Here they go again... You know how much I hate people that watch our every move... Doesn't that get to you?"

He shook his head with a sigh. "It's fame, Larry... But, it shouldn't be that bad! Maybe we can just... scare them off...?"

"...What do we like? Monsters?"

"Stay focused, guys." Seventeen year-old Ludwig came up to them annoyed. "How can you talk about fame and monsters at a time like this? We're here for father, not to talk about the paparazzi."

"So, if there is a possibility that Bowser would be back to his normal self, how easy or how hard will that task be?"

That question was directed to the savior of the Mushroom Kingdom. Commencing to take a few steps towards the castle, he gave him his final sentences for the public to hear for the time being. "Worst case scenario, we need to pray to the Star Spirits and hope that a miracle will happen. Best case scenario, it'll more simple than we think."

With the reporters being out of the way, it was a signal for two male Koopa officers to wander up to the red-capped hero. The first one was slightly shorter than the other with a purple shell. "How long are you planning to be here?"

"Until we have enough, if any information that'll help us and the Koopalings in this situation."

"Then in that case, I'll give you roughly about an hour. We're intending to leave soon." He responded with a rather hostile look in his eyes. It was not hard to tell for Mario as he could infer that he was probably not good at keeping his emotions hidden, unless the look was meant to not be a secret.

Him walking away, the second police officer glanced back at him, the difference being a more concerned look. "You are allowed to have all the time you need. Just be careful."

"Thank you." Mario replied. "I appreciate your concern."

His voice was a little louder than he would normally talk. Toad and Toadette could infer that he wanted the first officer he spoken to to hear his words. The younger sibling had to question the older one on his behavior. "What's up with the attitude? He's an officer and should know better."

Toad sighed with a shake from his head. "That's the way it is, Toadette. Even though we are only wishing to help Bowser, inhabitants of the Dark Lands are quite angry about it. The smart ones would understand, as you can see what happened there..."

"... ..." Toadette had to face the facts and realize that her brother was correct. No matter how hard Mario would try and help the Koopa King, most of the citizens of the Dark Lands would still hold grudges against him. He expressed himself to be no villain at all, but basically the only real reason why they would be irritated was just because that he was 'disrespecting' King Koopa. It meant that every time Bowser kidnaps the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom, Mario would do anything to save her, and that included brawling with Bowser himself.

Mario simply chose to shook it off walking to the rest of the group. "Alright, let's start looking to see if we can find _something_. Something that'll help Bowser, or at least give us a hint so we can figure out where he currently is."

With mostly nods, it told him that they accepted the task and split up into different directions to start searching. Due to the castle's collapse, most of the things that they needed for clues were probably either crushed or buried. If they could find anything, luck would be on their side.

Thinking of that, Roy didn't know if he should get his hopes up. "I don't know if anything survive the fall, if the remains were lucky enough to survive the fire... I don't want to go back to the Mushroom Kingdom with nothing..."

"It'd be pointless if we just go back with nothing." Luigi agreed, lifting pieces of the castle walls. "You know what they say, go hard or go home..."

"Me and Junior could try to breathe fire to clear up some of this, but the last thing we need is to do any more damage to the castle. Plus, we don't want to actually burn down any information we may need. Which means we have no choice but to do this the hard way..."

For some reason, Mario couldn't get that battle he had with Junior and his father off of his mind. It was obviously trying to remind him of that special thing about it. The fights with Bowser may be different whenever Mario faces him, yet that one time stood out. He had to talk to the five year-old again.

It was when something crossed his mind. "Hmm... Junior,... was Bowser... _Bowser_ , or something else during that battle..."

He and almost everyone else glanced at him with confusion. "...What do you mean...?"

"I mean... Was Bowser himself,... or was he in a different form...?"

Since it was easier for him and some others to comprehend, they began to think of where he was going. "...You mean before I... Hey, hold on a sec..."

Simultaneously, the older, yet shorter brother than Luigi snapped his fingers. "That's it! When I defeated Dry Bowser at that tower, you went ahead and changed him back from his dry status when I got to the castle!"

"..." He gasped in surprise. "Oh, yeah... I totally forgot that time..."

Those who weren't in the conversation before eyed each other with a mixture shocked and confounded faces.

"...Wait a minute..." It was Peach's turn to recall. "Mario, I remember you telling me what happened when you saved me from Koopa that time... And you _did_ tell me what Junior done to him to make him his normal self again..."

The ones who were still dumbfounded were late bloomers, finally fully enlightened of what Mario, Junior, and now Peach were discussing.

"I did remember making that what-you-may-call-it back then..." Ignatius brought up with a thumb resting beneath his chin. "It was a time when dad told everyone but Jr. to remain at the castle..."

"And I remember seeing it myself because I wanted to be nosy..." Wendy reminded herself. "That's why you kicked me out of your lab..."

"So, that means..." It was Luigi's turn to speak. "If Bowser Junior can restore his father back then, then..."

"Then we can use Iggy's invention to change him back, now!" Mario and Ludwig said at the same time.

The tallest Koopa of the eight shook his head, lightly slapping himself in the face. "Why didn't I think of that in the first place?"

"But, it's the perfect idea, Iggy!" Lemmy walked up to him with a grin. "So, all we need to do is to just pull it out!"

"... ... ..."

"...What?"

"We can't just pull it out, Lemmy... Dad burned the castle down... And plus, I never thought we would use that invention again, years after that battle took place... So, I got rid of it... However, with some supplies I can get when we return to the Mushroom Kingdom I could build it again... I just need to remember _exactly_ what I did..." He ended his statement with a sigh.

"Like Wendy," Ludwig re-entered the discussion. "I was curious at what were you doing that'll attempt to put a stop to Mario. I remember you putting the finishing touches on it... Wendy, how long were you in the lab befoer Iggy kicked you out."

"...Around three minutes?" She was unsure.

"Well, if you remember enough, maybe we can both help Iggy on re-creating his invention when we make our return to Peach's castle.

"That would work fine." Toadette nodded with agreement. "If we want to get Bowser back, Iggy must work on it immediately. And with that being said, we have more than enough information and we barely started looking."

"Still," Mario faced her. "there is probably more stuff that we need to find. We need all the information and clues we can find. We just figured out the big part of it..."

When Wendy glazed her eyes on some of the rubble. She couldn't believe her eyes on what she saw. "Oh, my goodness! I don't believe it!"

The girl rushed over to the area, and started moving some of said rubble out of the way until the apparent object was free. "My wand! It never got crushed!"

All of her siblings had mouths wide-opened as their only sister ran a certain distance to test it. A couple of rings being released when the pre-teen cast her spell. "It still works perfectly!"

Holding the same expression, Larry swiftly dashed to see the weapon up close. "...Y-Your wand didn't get destroyed... I... I... h-how...? I think you got lucky, there."

Pleased with her discovery she carefully placed the object in her pink shell. "If my wand made it, we can probably use this to help save..."

"..." At first the rest of the Koopalings were wondering why Gwendolyn would stop near the end of her sentence. Though, one-by-one, it hit them. A few of them just stared at the floor in the reaction.

"...What's wrong?" Toadette questioned with her head tilted to the side.

Toad was the first, other than the children themselves to find out the reason. "...They don't want to find their own father..."

"...Fight their own father?" Luigi was confounded.

"If Wendy found her wand, she thought of the possibility that she may have to fight Bowser in order to get him to Iggy's invention."

"Exactly." The only female of the bunch answered. "Unless we can just lure him to it... Iggy, what's the name of this invention, anyway? I am so sick of saying that word..."

"...Good question... I have never gave it a name... Didn't have enough time..."

"The point is, we have the solution to cure dad for the better." Roy butted in. "Let's keep looking to see if we can find anything else and head back to the Mushroom Kingdom."

* * *

About a quarter of an hour elapsed. If one had a watch, he or she could tell that it was nearing 8:30, it was beginning to get too dark to look, explaining why Mario brought flashlights.

While Morton Jr. was using his after some time, finding nothing was what made him quit with a sigh. "I give up... Everything else is probably trapped, crushed, or charred by the fire... That's a shame... We've spent almost an hour here and what did we find? Nothing... I need this was too good to be true. I know we've figured out how to cure dad, but we could have easily done it back at the castle. The only item we've found was Wendy's wand, and the rest of ours are history... If Kamek was here, he would remake them, but is he here, now? No! No one knows where the heck he is and-"

"MORTON!" A very irritated Roy growled.

"...Sorry..."

With one last shine, the light caught a rather strange brown book with letters decorated in yellow. It appeared as if someone wrote on the cover with permanent marker saying 'Journal'. "...Huh?"

Scoooping it up with his free hand, many pairs of eyes were focused on the apparently unharmed book which many of the Koopalings presumed that it was from the castle library. However, upon Morton opening it to see the contents, he observed the fact that it was not typed, it was handwritten.

"...If it's someone's handwriting, then it must not be from the library." Lemmy came to conclusions. "But in that case, where exactly did it came from? ...Unless this is Kamek's journal..."

"...Kamek has a journal?" Toad raised an invisible eyebrow.

"...But, this is not Kamek's handwriting..." Larry disagreed with a shook from his head. "...That's weird... He is the only one we know who has a journal in the castle..."

"...Hmm..." Ludwig thought out loud. "...If it doesn't belong to Kamek, perhaps this may belong to one of the many minions in the castle?"

"...Really?"

"I don't think Kammy, nor father has a journal, either. So, it comes to my hypothesis that this may belong to one of the minions. It doesn't matter which one, but if we read this, we may figure out what happened to all of the minions the night father had no control of his skeletal form."

Exchanging glances, Morton skipped many pages in attempt to find the most recent one. Whoever owns that journal might have written what was going on the night of the event. Yet, it might not be possible at the same time because of the castle burning down. Thus, he may not have had enough time to find his writing utensil, let alone inscribe about it.

The new question was answered when the third youngest son of the well-known king started to read. _"November 5, 2014..._ (That's the night of the incident... He did write about it after all...) _Something awful has happened to King Bowser Koopa, and none of us can at least find one of the children... Not even... Dry Bowser himself could find them... Unfortunately, not one of us minions were able to escape him in time, and has now ordered us to follow his orders, or else we will all perish by his now blue, fiery flames..._

 _As of now, he has decided where to start searching for the Koopalings since they have apparently already left, which is good for them... But the real bad news is now that Dry Bowser is desiring to find them so that they can be destroyed. He is so desperate he is going to other lands in attempt to find them... It's a good thing he never said anything about the Mushroom Kingdom. Still, he will plan an attack on..."_

"And that's it..." Morton finished with amazement. "He stopped right there... So, _that's_ what happened to all of Bowser's minions... I feel so sorry for them..."

"As do we all..." Ludwig agreed. "But, we were right about him going to other lands to search for us. What we can infer is that the Mushroom Kingdom is going to be the last place he will attack. From what Morton has read, we don't even know is father has even set his mind on it, or not."

"Still," spoke Luigi. "we need to act fast and prepare ourselves. I think we've done more than enough for today. Who's with me when I say let's head back?"

"I am." Toad turned off his light source. "I guess we can have Iggy making the inventions as Peach can prepare her Toads for Bowser, whenever he comes to the Mushroom Kingdom."

"I think we're all agreeing, here." Mario had his arms folded. "Let's move. The sooner we start, the sooner we finish."

* * *

 **Well, this is the longest chapter in a while. Turned out longer than expected. To be honest, some of this chapter I've thought of on the way. If it weren't for that, this chapter would be a bit shorter.**

 **Questions:**

 **1\. For those of you who haven't guessed, what world is Bowser attacking? It's main hero was the character from the first scene in chapter seven, so that should give you a hint.**

 **2\. The part when one of the officers got annoyed at Mario and when Toad answered Toadette's question, would you be the smart one, or would you go against everything the 'enemy' does, even if it's friendly? I know that there's an obvious answer, but still.**

 **See you all next time!**


	9. Chapter 9: First Official Day

No Such Thing

Chapter 9- First Official Day

 **Alright, in this particular chapter, it should be the easiest for my to write so far. It's going to be the Koopalings first official day, not counting their arrival at Peach's Castle. Basically, there's going to be some character development going on here.**

 **I do want to apologize about this story moving somewhat slowly. Fortunately, that's gonna change very soon, then we would have a lot of action again, especially when the Koopalings, Mario and the gang start their search for Bowser.**

 **Don't worry, that's not all what's going to happen in part 9, but I'm not telling you right now! Wait until the end!**

 **~KF**

* * *

8:00 A.M.

Young Lawrence Koopa was immune to the sunlight in the window that desired to make him rise out of his sleep. He and the crew returned around three in the morning, after flying back to the castle for approximately eight hours. Because of that information alone, it contributed to the fact that the second youngest child of Bowser not waking up at the time.

Little did he know that five hour asleep was about to approach an end.

 _Knock knock._

In spite of the double-knock on the door, it did not enough to make Larry's eyes open, even after a second attempt of knocking. Not only that, but it also proved that the one with the blue-mohawk was still tired, especially since he for some reason had trouble sleeping on Bowser's airship. One could guess that it was either excitement or nervousness, due to the information they discovered the day before. If he was awake at the current moment, he could recall that the only ones who were able to take a nap were Luigi, Peach, Wendy, and Jr., yet Toadette was close.

"Prince Lawrence, breakfast is ready in the dining room."

The Toad's servant voice wasn't too loud, nor too soft. It was just enough to wake the Koopa up. Taking a few moments to look around and stretch, he took a glance on his door. Finally getting out of bed, he stepped towards the door to unlock it.

Said Toad servant wouldn't have blamed him, had he slept longer. _"He is taking this rather well. I don't know if I would've slept at all if this happened to one of my parents... Then again, I don't know if he slept on the way over here yesterday..."_

Upon seeing the Koopaling's face, he took a step aside. "Breakfast is waiting in the dining room. I'll lead you the way."

He gasped in his mind, as he was confused quite a bit. _"He was actually nice... back at dad's castle, the Koopas would be annoyed getting us up half the time... Maybe they are concerned about us after all... Well, they do have a caring princess, and she wants them to behave the same way, even if they don't want to..."_

Not far from Larry, his older brother Roy was eyeing him and the Toad servant, with another one that was accompanying himself as they both wandered down the hall. He had a similar reaction. _"It's not hard to see that things are different here when it comes to servants waking up royalties... I bet even if we wanted to sleep more, they probably would have left us alone, unlike back at home, where pop's minions would basically force to get up after knocking eighteen billion times. That's one thing I do_ ** _not_** _miss..."_

His thoughts were interrupted when a third Toad was walking to another guest room, which temporarily belonged to sixteen year old Lemmy. The younger, yet taller sibling could have sworn that his knock was slightly softer than the servant who knocked on his door, further proving his point. But, what made him surprised was when an answer came sooner than expected.

 _"...Oh, yeah..."_ He then remembered. _"He's the hyper one... I've been so... worked up about all this, I've almost forgot my own brother's personality... Speaking of, I'm also just now noticing that Lemmy hasn't shown his hyperactive, immature side much... Well, I couldn't blame him. Since that... incident happened one should be anything but happy. If anything, he would be hyper in a bad way for once. But, Lemmy's not known for having negative reactions... That would be me... Well, he does have his **normal** moments at times. This is just one of him. Although, I wouldn't be surprised if he starts goofing off in front of everybody after breakfast..."_

* * *

By the time the pink-headed male reached the dining room, Ludwig and Morton were already there, not counting Larry. They arranged their seating as if they were back at their own castle. Thus, he, Larry, and now Lemmy decided to follow along.

"The rest of your siblings would be here shortly." The Toad servant who guided Lemmy told them with a nod as he, as well as the other two left the dining room. The door closing, Morton had the nerve to be the first one to open up his mouth after being silent the second he entered the room.

"...Am I the only one who finds it strange that Peach's Toads are being so nice to us?" He started. "Back at the castle, those minions act like they don't give two craps if we still wanted to sleep. It can be really annoying sometimes, especially if you wake up with a headache-"

"No one wants to you ranting first thing in the morning, Morton, let alone talking..." Ludwig rolled his eyes, rolling his clawed fingers through his blue hair. "But, I'm actually not astonished by it. This is Peach's castle, you know... And plus, they're showing that their sorry for what happened to father as well..."

"That's not hard to understand..." Larry responded. "If they can be nice, you know Peach can. Therefore, it proves that Peach isn't lying that she wants to help..." He saw Morton lifting a finger. " _Not_ saying that she shouldn't be easily trusted. If anyone, it should be Mario."

"There you go, bringing him up again, Larry." Roy shook his head in slight frustration. "I'm just surprised that I'm at least _tolerating_ him..."

"Aw, come on, Roy." It was Lemmy's turn to intervene. "Mario's not that _bad_. Maybe if he still thinks that we don't trust him, he would throw a party and bake a cake for us!"

Awkward silence.

"...What? Mario likes to had fun, too..."

 _"And thus, he is doing it again..._ _"_ Roy said in his mind, rolling his eyes behind his glasses.

Ignoring him, Ludwig continued. "Well, I think Mario has shown how much he cares about father and us altogether, if he hasn't already before the search happened at the castle. Yet,... it would take me a while to _like_ him if I'm going to used to him. He's most likely thinking about us as we speak if he's already awakened..."

The double doors to the dining room opened once more, and entered Iggy and Wendy, prior to two more Toads closing them.

"Can you believe that they were not being rude when they were waking us up?" Wendy questioned them. "Maybe it wouldn't take long getting used to living in this castle for who knows how long."

"I don't know, Wendy..." Iggy sighed taking a seat beside Lemmy. "Even... when we save him, the castle still has to be rebuilt... Who knows how long _that_ would take..."

"With that being said, we would be staying here for a while." Ludwig confirmed. "So, we'd better get used to the atmosphere while we still can... But, after we save father and the castle stands tall once more, everything would be back to the way it was so we won't have to worry much."

* * *

"...Mario, you may want to come to the front door..."

The italian plumber was also on the ground floor, prior to being asked by Luigi to walk to the front door. Apparently, something, or someone important was waiting on the outside of Peach's castle, as Mario could tell by the shocking look on the taller sibling's face. Yet, he couldn't tell if it was bad or not. Nonetheless, it had only made him more curious.

It didn't take him long at all to find the answer, once he seen the source of Luigi's reaction. Ignoring the forming paparazzi outside the castle gate, he found himself to having almost the same reaction his brother had.

"...Yoshi!?"

Peach and Toadsworth were there as well, the former deciding to be the first one to speak. "He told me that he wanted to discuss something important that happened in his home world, Mario."

"Does it have anything to do with what happened in the Dark Lands?"

"He wouldn't say." Yoshi was letting Peach do all the talking for him. "I guess he doesn't want to say this right now in case the paparazzi hears him. Let's go to the dining room and we shall move on from there."

* * *

Bowser Junior was the last member of the family to join the brown table with his older siblings. Taking the seat next to Morton and across from Larry, he was already wanting to start a conversation. "Did you know-..."

All nodding their heads, Jr. could tell that his question was answered before it was even finished.

The Yellow Toad was still in the doorway. "We are still waiting for Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, and Toadsworth. Once they have arrived, the chefs will serve breakfast.

That meant that Toad, Toadette, Yellow Toad, and Blue Toad were already in the room, which explained the reason why Junior was whispering. And ever since they showed up, the conversation between some of the other Koopalings was forced to a halt.

However, that did not mean that they couldn't think, such as Wendy in particular. Nevertheless, she was thinking of a different topic. In this case, how good, or how perfect will her first breakfast in Peach's castle will be, being the picky eater she is. " _...If my meal isn't perfect enough for me, I would let them slide since this is they're very first time serving us... I don't even know what we're having today... Come to think of it, I don't think we've had anything to think at all ever since we came here, due to all this stuff going on... I just wanna know how did Larry, Morton, Roy, or Junior didn't complain one time about it... So, this is new to us..."_ She thought. _"So for now, if their food is at least tolerable, I'll deal with it... I hate to be harsh on them on the first day..."_

The double doors opened one last time before the first meal of the day was going to be served. As expected, in came the Mario Bros., the princess, and Toadsworth. What was unexpected was that a familiar green dinosaur was tagging along.

"Yoshi!?" It was the first time they've spoken since four of the mushroom people entered.

The well-known hero was surprised himself that he was eyeing the Koopalings in the dining room hence why his mouth was wide-opened. It told the eight, plus the floor who were at the large table that he had not heard about the Koopalings coming to Peach's castle at all. Of course, the last thing he predicted was them coming to the Mushroom Kingdom of all places. Regardless, if he were to break it down, it would come to his realization that they had no choice but to do so.

"Wha...? What are you all doing here? ...Mario!?" His head swiftly turned towards him, before glancing at the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom.

* * *

"...SAY, WHAT!?"

That was the general reaction the group had, not too long after breakfast was finally in front of them. The Koopalings didn't even get the chance to even think about how good the food actually was to them. They were having french toast, which happened to be Wendy's favorite breakfast dish, so she didn't even had a single complain to make.

Any possible upcoming ones were thrown out the window upon hearing the news.

"Woah, woah, wait a minute, Yoshi!" Toadette held her right hand out to take a moment to take the green animal's words in. "You're telling me that you've came all the way here from Dinosaur Land to tell us that you actually _saw_ Dry Bowser attacking a forest in attempt to find the Koopa Kids after they'd escaped from the now burned down home!?"

"Yeah, I had no choice but to..." He stopped for a brief moment. "Hold on a sec, that's why _they're_ here?" One could infer that everyone allowed Yoshi to go first to explain his presence in the Mushroom Land. It was finally confirmed that it did linked to the night Bowser was taken over by his skeletal form after all.

"... ... ..." Toadsworth was at a lost for words at first. "...The only positive thing I can say about this matter is that now we know where their father is... Unless he is either on his way, or already out of Dinosaur Land... We need to act fast if we're gonna find them..."

As for the Koopalings, thanks to their jaws dropping greatly, it was easy to tell that they were more astonished that everyone else in the room. They didn't even know what to think about the situation.

"If he's out of Dinosaur Land, who knows what land he would attack next? Sarassaland? Kongo Jungle?" Yellow Toad thought out loud. "If he's in either of those places, we don't have much time to waste. At any moment, he could just randomly come in this direction."

"We have to word those kingdoms, and the others about Bowser." Mario promptly responded. "It's probably on the news right now."

"Me and a few of my servants shall write letters as a warning about his approach." Peach told everyone with a worried look in her eyes.

* * *

 **Aw, come on, it was pretty obvious that Yoshi was the mystery character from chapter 7, and Dinosaur Land was the land Dry Bowser was going. Well, at least we have a new character in the mix. But, I don't think it was enough to make up for the lack of action this story has... But like I said in the introduction, it should change soon.**

 **Questions:**

 **1\. What land do you think Dry Bowser will go after next, and why?**

 **2\. From what you saw in this chapter, do you think some, or all the Koopalings trust Mario?**


	10. Chapter 10: Preparations

No Such Thing

Chapter 10- Preparations

 **Now that we have Yoshi, this should bring more excitement as we have our first character from another world from the Mario universe joining. You guys are most likely thinking of who's going to be next.**

 **...To be honest, not even I know at the moment. But, I guess it only makes it better.**

 **What I want to point out is not only after this chapter this is officially going to be my longest story ever, but I will also have 150,000 words written for all my stories! (This also has over 1,000 views! Thanks!)**

 **~KF**

* * *

It was now after breakfast, and the Koopalings were once again silent as each of them, along with their frenemies left the cafeteria after they enjoyed a rather good meal. Unfortunately, due to the sudden news, they didn't have enough time to think about how good it was.

Not paying attention to minor issues, they now had an even bigger problem than it already was. However, the question was why in the world would Dry Bowser choose Dinosaur Land to attack of all places.

It was exactly what Mario was thinking of. Because of how astounding and confounding it was, he thoughts had to be spoken. "Before we found out what actually happened, we first thought of who 'attacked' Bowser's home, saying that if it were anyone, it should be us. Then, we learned that it was Dry Bowser himself that burned down his own home. Now, we know that he chose Dinosaur Land to be the first place to explore. I don't why in the name of the Star Spirits he would think that the Koopalings would go there... I mean, when the princess is kidnapped, not one of them heads to the Dinosaur Lands so that they can battle me..."

"Not to mention, there is no tower, nor castle there." Reminded Peach with a raised finger. "The fact he would choose there first is beyond me. But, the points is, we have to warn help out the inhabitants and worn the other lands right now. Me and a few of my servants will be in the throne room."

"Princess Peach," Yet another Toad walked over to her calmly. "the reporters are back. May we and the others calm them down?"

"I'll talk to them." Mario nodded with a nod. "Yoshi can come, too."

Iggy scratched his neck and looked away. "I guess I can't start working on that invention... I just hope that I remember all the major details... I'm gonna need some supplies, though..."

"We will help you on that." The same Toad who informed Peach about the paparazzi replied with a nod.

He looked slightly astonished. "...I... I'd appreciate it, thank you..."

"Well, young one, I don't think you could manage to pull it off all by yourself, no more how talented you may be at making inventions. We all need help sometimes."

That statement had the potential to be more powerful than it seemed, and it was. Ludwig was the certain being that was affected by it. _"...We were so blinded by the fact that were being aided by Mario, we couldn't see it... He's right, without a doubt... We may be at each other's throats, but it doesn't mean that we don't need any help at all, even when it comes to being worst enemies..."_

Mario was smiling in his mind. _"Maybe they would finally start to understand. I may need help one time if it's not Bowser trying to take over the Mushroom Kingdom if I can't do it all by myself. We just have to put ourselves in the other's position."_

* * *

 _Dear Prince Vanillabean, ruler of the Meringue Clouds,_

 _In case you are not aware, King Bowser Koopa's castle was in flames just a couple days ago, due to King Koopa himself unable to control his skeletal form inside him. Typically, he would use said form whenever it it necessary, though as of now, Bowser is not able to transform back into his normal form._

 _As we speak, the king of the Dark Lands is after his eight children. They have managed to come to the Mushroom Kingdom, and is now staying in my castle until we figure out a way to stop all of this and change him back. Since he is after the children, he is desperately searching through possibly all of the lands. Just yesterday morning, Dinosaur Land was unfortunately his first target, as the Yoshis homes are being burned down as well as forest fires starting. We do not know which land will he target next, nor when he will do so. I suggest that you plan ahead and prepare your minions if your land will be his next location._

 _Sincerely, Princess Peach Toadstool, ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom_

That was letter number three that Peach and her accompanying servants had to write. They basically had to warn the entire universe of Bowser's attacking. It was so extreme, even the whole galaxy was put into question. Any place Bowser been to would search there for the Koopalings, only expressing how desperate he actually was. Adding fuel to the fire, if the universe did not have enough time to prepare, it would rapidly fall into chaos. Peach's honest thoughts were that she would rather be kidnapped for the umpteenth time and just have her kingdom being taken over, and not the entire world.

It was a lot for her to take in, but she was handling pretty well thus far, and rather quite calm then completely exhausted and stressed out. Calm is one of her known character traits, so it actually wasn't surprising for her Toad servants.

 _"When Donkey Kong and Daisy get warned, maybe they can come."_ The princess was thinking to herself. _"You know what they say, the more the merrier. The entire world would have to accept the fact that we are on the Koopalings' side and will have no choice but to trust them. ...And if **we** don't, there would be a major consequence for it... Carrying the entire world on our shoulders..."_

She concluded with a sigh. Just because she shown herself that her energy wasn't drained from the whole situation didn't mean that she thought that it would be a breeze. It was anything but that, of course. Thankfully, the more allies that get warned, the more allies would help. If one broke it down to that, he or she would realize that it wouldn't be as bad.

Peach thinking rule, simply nodded her head with a slight smile pasted across her face expressing hope. Wasting another moment or two, she moved to writing the next letter for the Layer-Cake Desert.

* * *

"Yes, I've kept my word that I will be back to talk to all of you, so please be patient here."

Meanwhile, Mario and Yoshi were surrounded by many reporters as they were near the castle gate. The latter was occupied by his surroundings while the main savior of the Mushroom Kingdom did all the talking.

"The reason why Yoshi came all the way here is because that Dry Bowser has attacked Dinosaur Land and is possibly still doing so."

Many gasps were almost immediately followed. Some of the paparazzi dropped their camers to the ground, a few breaking. Other members of it stepped forward and leaned closer to the point where their cameras and microphones were almost directly in front of their faces.

Ignoring the sudden loud noise from the large crowd and keeping his cool, Mario resumed speaking. "We are warning the other lands as we speak. They will know that they need to prepare for whatever land is going to be Dry Bowser's next target. You can expect heroes like Donkey Kong and Daisy to arrive here when they get enlightened by this major incident. I'm pretty sure they would help, also. And if they were to trust the Koopalings, you guys should too."

Some of the noise began to quite down, and was replaced by a few stares from the Toads that lived near to the castle and were not reporters.

"Face it. What if we didn't trust Bowser's children and turned them down? Do you honestly believe that we would be alive for much longer?"

Concluding what he had to say, the green dinosaur followed his friend back into the castle doors, subsequently being closed by the two Toads standing on each side.

In a living room that contained two green Toads, a father and son were silent throughout the entire time they seen the two heroes on their television screen. Once the double doors of the castle closed, the son with the lighter shading of green used the remote to turned the family TV off. "Man, maybe he's right after all. If they weren't on his side, I don't know if we'll see next week."

His father simply shook his head in response with his head hanging low. "He's just saying that so that they will stop asking him about that. There might not be only one way to put an end to this. Why can't they just stop for good like they always do? And this time, make sure that the damage is permanent so that we will never see him again. I'm not buying it..."

"..." He could only eye him.

* * *

Another night came across the Mushroom Kingdom, and Ludwig, Iggy, and Wendy were wandering the halls of Princess Peach's castle. Iggy somewhat had a satisfied look on his face while the other two only stared blankly.

"We've actually made progress today." The one with the strange hair told his brother and sister. "I believe I should give myself a pat on the back... I mean shell... I-I mean... nevermind..."

"We understand what you mean, Iggy." Ludwig rotated his head. "If we continue working at a pace like this tomorrow, we would be finish in no time and would be on our journey to find father. No other land should be harmed by him. I, for one feel sorry for those Yoshis' in Dinosaur Land... They could be our people if the attacker was somebody else..."

"...Like, you know who..." The tall Koopa did not care if his mumbling was loud enough to be heard.

"You still don't know, do you?" Wendy had to ask. "Just go with the flow. That was what I taught myself how to handle certain things. It may not be what we wished for, but slowly I am learning to trust that plumber."

"It's quite obvious that trust is the word of the day, and maybe the word of the day for a while until we save father." Ludwig replied as they continued waliking. "I should be the last one to trust him and not you, Iggy..."

"I know _that_ , Ludwig." He had a slight glare behind his glasses. "It's just that... I'm not quite used to this, yet..."

"As we all are. Like Wendy said, go with the flow until you can get used to it. I've managed to shake everything off after breakfast when I was helping you, which you have not thanked me or Wendy, yet."

A quick sigh was followed. "Fine, thanks you two, I really appreciate it..."

"Anytime." The blue-haired son of Bowser grinned. "...You know, let's not use the word 'trust' as often. We need to find a word to replace it until we were out of this. ...Something that is not good, nor bad..."

"..."

Their confusions looks meant that it would be decided later.

The three met the rest of their siblings at long last, along with the Mario Bros., Peach, Yoshi, and Toadsworth. All of them were standing right outside the door, eyeing the stars in the night sky. It was Toadsworth's suggestion that they should do this action to take their minds off of things and then they could sleep off the stress that they had for the time being.

"You know Mario," Luigi took a break from glancing at them. "I don't even remember the last time we just look at the sky like this. I've almost forgot how beautiful it was..."

"You said it, Luigi." Mario had to agree. "Unfortunately, it had to be in a situation like this out of all times... Don't worry. In the next couple weeks, we would be hard at work... Those Koopalings deserve to be happy in the best possible way..." He started mumbling, altering his facial expression. "There's no way we are putting them down, especially if Bowser is all they have left..."

"Hmm..." He shrugged. "Makes me think of our parents..."

"Exactly." His voice got as low as a whisper. "It is why we need to put ourselves in their... shoes... and imagine what it would it be like. I know I'm saying this a million times, but people are still thinking that we should just betray them, but we're not..."

The older, yet shorter brother leaned closer. "They would have nothing to live for if we rejected them..."

Some loud gasps were heard from a couple of the people who were standing near. Mario wondering what was the problem, he was eyeing in the direction they were reacting at whatever it was.

...

Bowser's airship.

"...!"

"...!"

"...!"

One-by-one, all eyes were wide opened, as well as their mouths. Not one could even blink at the sight. Standing right behind the wheel was the King Koopa himself in his skeletal form, with an evil look in his eyes.

* * *

 **... ... ...**

 **Questions:**

 **1\. It's been another five chapters. Who is your favorite character so far, and why?**

 **2\. It's been ten chapters. Can you predict what's going to happen next? Sometimes the answer can be obvious...**


	11. Chapter 11: The Attack

No Such Thing

Chapter 11- The Attack

 **...Well, there it is, folks. Lo and behold, Dry Bowser pops in the picture. Guess he must have smartened up a bit and headed straight for the Mushroom Kingdom, and thanks to Toadsworth, they chose that moment to head out of the castle of all nights. But hey, everyone was expecting the Mushroom Kingdom to be the very last place Dry Bowser would search for the Koopalings, yet it is only the second place he chooses.**

 **Let us watch and see what happens.**

 **~KF**

* * *

"... ... ..."

If time had the ability to freeze, it definitely would have done so at that very moment. All eight of Bowser's children, the Mario Bros., Yoshi, Toadsworth, and Princess Toadstool were making it as if it could actually happen, thanks to their frozen looks on their faces as they were all wide-eyed with their jaws dropped.

Lemmy desired to pinch himself hard so that he could find out if what was happening was either real, or all in his head. Doing that action, it was unfortunate for him that it was a reality after all, and he didn't like it.

While the rest of the crew were standing as still as a statue, Dry Bowser took advantage of the situation. **"FIRE!"**

Hearing that single word, nervousness almost instantly entered Mario's system as he bawled up his fists and clenching his teeth with both eyebrows raised. He couldn't even have another moment to spare as he barely took off running from the castle. Around that time, cannonballs were already being shot from the cannons. It was the allies' cue that they needed to hurry and get out of the way. Unfortunately, Princess Peach's castle had to be sacrificed as Iggy, Wendy, and Larry had a close call. Promptly after they ducked and dashed off, the walls and the front door became Dry Bowser's targets accidentally. It was already a lot to take in simply because of King Koopa's presence.

Not long after hearing big bangs from the inside of the castle, servants of different colors immediately rushed out to be curious of what was happening just out of the now demolished front door, two of them were the Toad Bros., Yellow Toad and Blue Toad. Like the rest of the Mario crew, their jaws dropped and their eyes became widened. Not only that the castle was being attacked, but the attack itself was planned from the last person they wanted. And it was quite obvious that he felt the exact opposite than everyone else. Enjoyment and greed.

As soon as the second round of cannonballs were shot out of their cannons, the Toad group had to follow the actions of their friends as they couldn't soak everything in. At one point, Morton tripped and fell to the ground due to jerking his body in all directions.

"MORTON!"

Iggy was the nearest to his eldest younger brother as his left hand shot out to grab so that they could leap out of the way as the cannonball missed the two at almost the last possible moment to move.

"...T-Try not to head in all directions at once,... okay!?" Iggy gave him advice as their stomachs laid on the ground.

 _"..."_ Ludwig was watching them close. _"That was too close... Had Iggy not saved him, our first sibling would have been lost..."_

Mario was eyeing them as well. "I hope their okay..." Glancing at their skeletal father, a glare was shot in his eyes. Not because of the feeling of hatred, but because of the feelings of annoyance, frustration, and determination. He was annoyed of the sudden interruption, he was frustrated in the situation he was almost immediately dragged in, yet he was determined that he would soon stop him so that the Koopalings would no longer had to worry that he would be a goner.

He slowly stood on his two feet after with his glare still locked on.

Seeing his facial expression, the dry version of the king of the Dark Lands only folded his arms snickering. **"You know, plumber, I wasn't actually planning on searching for you, I was seeking for the eight arrogant, ungrateful fools over there."** He rotated his head to see his eight children. **"But finding you and your team here, you all will be an added bonus to my list called 'Things to Obliterate', or in this case ' _Beings_ to Obliterate'... Permanently."**

The red-capped hero of the princess was not fazed one bit. "Finding it funny that you would plan to annihilate your own children, your own flesh in blood. You may not have flesh and blood now, but once you are saved, you will still regret of what your plan was while you were still dry. That being said, we are going to stop you and rescue you from the dark side whether you like it or not!"

 **"I prefer not, you sorry excuse for a fighter. The only thing you know how to do is to jump on people. Luckily,"** He raised a finger. **"I happen to be much smarter than that lame, green-shelled joke of a ruler. I should be the one leading the Dark Lands, and not being his understudy. He will be _my_ understudy forever!"**

While he was arguing with the savior of the Mushroom Kingdom, Lemmy chose to be the only one to think that the current moment was just the right time to ask everyone else the definition of a word. "...What's an understudy?"

 **"...Fake Koopas... such slow learners, just like some of my own minions..."**

"...Huh...?"

He had to be ignored. **"** **DESTROY THE KOOPALINGS, TAKE AWAY ANYONE WHO IS USELESS IN STOPPING ME, AND DEMOLISH THIS... CASTLE... IT LOOKS LIKE SOME CHILD DAY CARE... _NOW!_ "**

Dozens of his minions, Koopa and Dry Bones' jumped out of the airship with some being armed by handheld cannons. Those were then shooting bullet bills and cannonballs from earlier. The ones that contained bullet bills weren't the ones that always went straightforward, they were the ones that were designed to home in on their foes.

Said bullet bills revealing that fact themselves, the group had to act even faster than they were before. None of them wanted to sacrifice the castle like they have just done, so while they were running they had to glaze at their surroundings to see what they can hit.

It didn't take long at all for the first soul to think of the right target, which was Roy. "Guys, can't we just give him his own medicine! Head to the airship, now!"

Luigi was closest to Roy, so his voice was loud and clear for him, in spite of the bullet bills and firing cannons. To top it all of, cannons from the castle started firing at long last. Had they learned that the Mushroom Kingdom was Dry Bowser's next location, they would have been ready to fire back a long time ago. But of course, things had to be the exact opposite.

He was planning to follow the burly Koopa's suggestion, though his arms were suddenly grabbed by two Green Koopas. He had the opportunity to knee both of them in the faces, yet two more Koopas had the upperhand as both of his legs were clasped, forcing all of his limbs to remain still. Before he could even think about it, he found being carried. The quartet of turtles had to hurry, since the bullet bill that was coming after Luigi was still going strong. They were heading straight for Princess Toadstool's castle, forcing the green-capped brother of Mario to be wide-eyed once more. Nevertheless, they steered away, but the bullet bill didn't have enough time to do the same. So the home of the royal princess was struck, yet again.

Mario at long last saw his brother now being carried to Bowser's airship while still trying to avoid being hit by his bullet bill. Looking back at it, he started to nimbly ran toward the airship, not only to save his only sibling, but to also make the rocket hit Dry Bowser's transportation.

When said bullet bill made its impact, the loud boom and the airship's movement was apparently unexpected to Dry Bowser, as one could infer that he was not paying attention to the plumber at all, hence why he was alarmed when he was on board.

 **"GRRRRR! MARIO, THIS ISN'T ALL ABOUT YOU! YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED HERE!"** He pointed at him with his dry, index finger.

"You are mistaken, Koopa... Some of your minions were close to throwing Luigi on board. If you that won't let that happen, then you should feel the same if someone was after your children." His tone of voice was deeper. "But now, you understand little to nothing of how important family is important to you. If you're telling me that the real you does not give two craps about your children, then I would want to exactly why would you have them in the first place."

 **"Because, I didn't know that they would be so u** **seless and impudent** **."** The villain stared angrily. **"That's why I do not give two craps about them, whatsoever."**

That was it for the Dry Koopa. He chose to start a fight with his arch-nemesis while everyone else on the ground were desperately attempting to avoid being hit by cannonballs and being grabbed by Bowser's minions.

The last thing one of them wanted to ask was the well-known question: How could things possibly get any worse?

Unbeknownst to them, simply thinking about it was what triggered everything. Fire Bros., Hammer Bros, and Ice Bros., all leaped out of the airship to literally throw their weapons and powers at the allies, like they were already not having a hard time.

"This has become more disastrous then ever!" Toadsworth grabbed the royal princess as they headed back in the doorway of the castle. "We have to do something!"

"But, I'm pretty sure those Toads are firing back as fast as they can, Toadsworth!"

Adding onto the help, Yoshi's tongue was wrapping around minions one-by-one, subsequently being rapidly pulled into his mouth before they were all being laid into green, polka-dotted eggs.

Junior had decided that the best to do was to remain hidden and stay low. His idea would have been said out loud, but obviously it wouldn't work at all. Last thing he wanted it to be like was when he pointed some of the enemies' weak points at the time he and Mario were in the galaxy, even though they were already obvious in the first place.

He was hiding behind one of the bushes, since his shell was already green, it gave Bowser Junior an advantage. He at first thought of retreating into his shell, but then he wondered if he and the bush were actually shot at by the cannons.

Rethinking it over, the poor kid had no choice but to get out of his comfort zone and do things the hard way. The only positive thing about the situation was that he could at least see his siblings and the Mario crew to make sure their okay.

Ludwig was amongst of who observed the fight on the airship. Pausing for a bit, he actually managed to outsmart the homing bullet bills that were approaching him at such a rapid speed. He leapt in the air and hopped on each one until he made it on board. He presumed that it was just how Mario got on board.

Seeing a second 'foe', Dry Bowser opted that he didn't have enough to deal with them for the time being. _**"Get them..."**_

Regardless of the low grumble, a few of Koopas still heard their 'leader' clearly. Since they came out of seemingly nowhere, no one should have blamed them of the fact that they one simply stood while being dumbfounded. At once, both were literally thrown off the airship, it simultaneously taking off.

Back on the ground, Yoshi ran as quick as he could to catch Mario on his back while Ludwig was caught by some of Peach's Toad servants.

"Are you alright, sir?"

"LUIGI!" Peach shouted with her right hand thrusting forward.

One could not see how Mario wouldn't be flabbergasted of the events that just took place. Said flabbergasted look nimbly changed to a completely enraged expression. He didn't even ponder about when was the last time he was that angry. And Mario was not known to usually being in such mood. Thus, no one that was an acquaintance of him were never used to see him being that way.

"WE'RE GOING AFTER IT!"

* * *

 **... ... ...I am not even going to discuss everything in this chapter. I'll let your reviews do the talking...**

 **What I can do is apologize for waiting about a month for the next chapter. School was my excuse. I'm a junior now, which means that after this chool year, I'll only have one more left. Wish me luck...**

 **Questions:**

 **1\. Mario is not one that get angered easily. Which Mario game do you guys think he was last seen this angry?**

 **2\. What is going on through everyone's minds right now?**


	12. Chapter 12: The Chase

No Such Thing

Chapter 12- The Chase

 **So I guess at this point, the real action is commencing, which is a great plus for this! It's one of the story's main genres, after all!**

 **Now, I'm not sure if I can finish this chapter by next week, since it's a Monday afternoon that I'm typing this part. It is why I'm gonna give this a head start.**

 **Back to the contents of this, the really big problem from before just got even bigger, obviously. Now, everyone has to rescue not one, but two people. And out of all the allies, it's for once not the princess, since we all know that we are tired of her getting kidnapped every five seconds, right? So, with that being said, Peach is not going to get kidnapped at all during this.**

 **~KF**

* * *

About an instant later, Mario turned to his left to remember that they weren't the only ones by the castle.

"...Uh, Mario..." Blue Toad nervously took a few steps back viewing some of Dry Bowser's minions. "We still got company, here..."

A heavy grown was heard from the rescuer of Princess Peach. Looking at the minions who were slowly walking closer to the allies and back at the flying airship repeatedly. There was only one option Mario considered in his head. "Alright, that's it! We're splitting up, me and the Koopalings are going after King Koopa! The rest of you handle those minions! Now, let's go! To Ludwig's airship!"

Not having another moment to spare, the Koopalings almost immediately obeyed Mario's instructions and proceeded to run to the back of Castle Toadstool, leaving the rest of the Mario crew behind.

 _"Good luck..."_

Peach was forced to remain inside the castle after being told a million times to by her servants, despite her responding that she was not going to be a coward and let everyone else do the fighting for her. But, what was she to do? The only time she really fights people is whenever she in the Smash World with her fellow Smashers.

Fortunately for her, she suddenly came up with an idea and ran further back in her castle home.

Back outside, Toadette of course could not believe what she was seeing at the time. Dry Bowser came way earlier as planned and just attacked the castle, stealing Mario's brother as a result. What made matters worse was that she knew that the Koopalings were for once on the opposing side of Bowser's minions, let alone the King of Koopas himself.

That wasn't all. This was also the first time Castle Toad stool was actually attacked. After it was invaded before, it was what made Peach command her Toad servants to use cannon to defend themselves for now on. She was growing tired of Bowser's many attempts to kidnap her and take over the Mushroom Kingdom. It was when the dragon-like creature 'crossed the line' for the citizens of the Mushroom Kingdom. It may have been Bowser's normal routine for the most part, but if Mario proved to be unsuccessful for the first time, it would basically be the end for said kingdom.

Though to take things to the extreme, it took Bowser's dry form to cause such a calamity, yet his normal form couldn't even do it himself. That led Toadette to one question she desired to ask her people.

 _"Would you rather deal with a bad person or an evil person?"_

Toad was a few seconds from being surrounded by a quartet of Red Koopas who were rapidly approaching the red, polka-dotted capped creature. As frantic as he was, his mind was running with all sorts of questions, not knowing exactly what to do, until a final decision was made during the last moments he had to think of something. When the four turtle enemies of Mario were nearing the then desperate being, he jumped, landing only to see that the four that were charging at him ended up crashing right into each other.

He smiled at his 'work' glancing at them in pain as they laid on the bare ground.

"Mario wasn't thinking twice when he thought of this plan... It kinda stinks..." Yellow Toad was defending himself by taking one Dry Bones to throw it at others. "At least have a couple of the Koopalings stay here so that they can help... Well, we _should_ be thankful that we still have Yoshi..."

The dinosaur was doing the same technique he was when the airship was still present at the castle, so he didn't have to worry too much, especially since the homing bullet bills were destroyed after they crashed into various things, the castle occasionally having to be sacrifice. Yet, what choice did they have? It was either the castle, or themselves. Although, they did have the option of letting two bullet bills homing into each other, but only Larry was able to pull it off.

The number of foes that were standing began to decrease in the next minute. Only the Dry Bones were still going strong. Every time they were knocked down, they simply had the choice to just get up again.

"..." Blue Toad had to deal with those types of minions the most, so he was the first to recall that fact. "Guys, if they are only these guys leftover, leave them. We don't have the time to deal with these all night! We've gotta help the others, now!"

As instructed, the rest of the group followed, doing their best to defeat Koopas, Gommbas, Paratroopas, and Paragoombas. Regardless of the fact that they were all getting the job done, it came to their realization that not a single Hammer Bro was finished.

That was when Peach came into the picture. She dashed right out of the now destroyed castle doors holding her most infamous weapon when it came to Smash Bros.

Her frying pan.

It was kept in a firm grip in both hands, with an angry, yet determined facial expression. The Hammer Bro, Fire Bro, and Ice Bro were astonished with their jaw-dropping looks.

Along with the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom, several of her Toad servants emerged speedily out of the large home, some holding cannons, as well as the ones that were on the roof of the castle.

"Surrender, now." Peach warned with her stern look.

Many stares were exchanged, some with confusion and nervousness. Even Peach's friends were flabbergasted. Bowser's army was never warned to surrender in the history of their king's attempts to rule their land. However, due to the possibility of things becoming worse for them, and the limited time they have, one could not blame the one dressed in pink.

Simultaneously, the opposing side gave up. "We surrender..."

With a sigh a relief, Peach was pleased.

"Thanks, Peach." Yellow Toad stated with a smirk. "Now we must go after the others."

"But, we have no idea where they went." His brother responded. "To add onto it, we have no transportation! How will we ever find Bowser's airship? Searching for them on foot would take forever!"

"Don't worry," Toadsworth shook his head. "They should be arriving at any moment, now. We will go search for them that way."

"With all respect, Toadsworth." Peach glazed her eyes down at him. "Do you mind staying here and escort Bowser's minions to the throne room? You know how much I want to help."

"Princess, I think it may be best if you remain at the castle. After all, who's going to do the talking here? Plus, it would be strange if they were to go to _your_ throne room and _you_ are not present."

"As crazy as it may seem, Toadsworth, we are already in a tight situation. I'm allowing you to do it. Mario and the gang need all the help they can get." Peach answered. "I may be just a princess, but I don't want to exercise the thought that I am no help at all."

"..." With some thinking, he had to agree with a nod in understanding. "I see how it is, princess."

Loud sirens could be heard approaching the large group with many eyes staring at the source. Several police vehicles were coming their way. When one observe that many heading somewhere at a rapid speed, he or she could tell that something major was going on.

"...Go on, now."

"...Thank you, Toadsworth." Peach smiled beginning to take off. "I'll see you when we get back."

With the other allies opening doors and slamming them shut, right after they all took off. Toadsworth took a couple more moments to absorb everything in.

"...Be safe..."

It was until that moment he found out that literally every minion of the ruler of the Dark Lands was eyeing him. "...Now, what are you all looking at? Inside, now!" He commanded. "Ain't you ever seen a Toad before!"

While looking back at her castle, Toadette happened the be the one to grab her attention. "Good job back there, by the way. But, did you have to bring out a frying pan? I find it unprofessional..."

Her longtime friend sighed in her actions. "I was desperate, Toadette. Never before did I have to go through any of this. I could have just stood at the doorway and went from there, but I was acting without thinking, but I was acting without thinking. Besides, what if I was literally the last one remaining? I had to do something..."

She shrugged it off and looked at the couple members of the Toad Police. "Did you guys see the direction the airship was heading?"

"Do not worry, miss. We got it covered." The one in the passenger seat assured.

"Let's hope for the best, then." She concluded, yet she wasn't so sure how would things end up.

* * *

"Ludwig," a annoyed Wendy shouted. "could your driving be any slower?"

"You should know that this thing is at full speed, Wendy!" He yelled back without taking a glance at her. "Now, be quiet! Father's ship is becoming more visible."

Some of the Koopalings wanted to disagree with Wendy. Not one of them could recall if Ludwig ever drove that fast ever since he taught himself how to drive. And if one was staring at his hands, he or she would point out that Ludwig's hands never gripped that hard on the wheel.

Morton was shaking his needs from fear and nervousness. "...T-This is bad... V-Very, very bad... What if we don't make it? If we don't make it, we'll never catch up to dad's airship! And if we can't catch up to dad's airship, we'll never rescue Luigi and save dad! And if we can't rescue Luigi and save dad, then all hope is lost! Ludwig, you'd better step on it, or-"

"LUDWIG KNOWS WHAT HE'S DOING, NOW PUT A LID ON IT!" Roy hollered at the top of his lungs. Unfortunately for him, Morton was the one who disagreed with Ludwig's driving skills along with Wendy.

Mario happened to be ignoring almost the entire conversation. It was as if his eyes were glued right on to Dry King Koopa's airship. As Ludwig claimed, they were nearing it. Soon, they would be able to snap back into action. All they needed was a perfect plan.

 _"...Thank you..."_ Ludwig thanked Roy in his mind as he kept on going. As he was driving, his mind chose to remember what happened back at Peach's castle. He didn't know why he was thinking of it just now, but he was remembering him jumping right onto the airship with Mario. Along with that, if Dry Bowser's minions never thrown off the airship, and if things escalated high enough, Ludwig could have fought Bowser, his only parent that remained. A feeling of guilt found its way into his system. The only children that would fight their own parents were the ones who were so disobedient that they would resort everything into violence if things didn't go their way. But, Ludwig was never a brat growing up. If any of his siblings, it would have been Wendy, Jr., and maybe Lemmy.

That was beside the point. Like going to the Mushroom Kingdom, fighting Bowser was the last thing he could ever wish to do. At every attempt he would try to attack him, he couldn't see how he could ever bring himself to finish the job. If there was any other option, he and his siblings would be all for it.

 _"Father..."_

"Alright, everyone, here's the plan..." Mario interrupted the eldest Koopaling's thoughts. "When we get close enough to Bowser, a few of us have to stay here, of course. Someone has to control this ship and at least two of you have to guide him if necessary. He can't see in all directions at once. Also, we have to make sure this ship stays hidden, or else it would get shot down, this aircraft being armed or not. Bowser has more cannons than this."

"That means we have to stay close to him without being seen..." Roy answered. "But, how could we possibly jump to the ship if we're still far from reaching it?"

Larry looked dumbfounded. "...Wait a minute... You mean to tell me... that we have to _jump_?"

"It's the only way to get to dad, Larry." Lemmy responded.

"...W-Well, I'm not the best jumper, here..." Larry shifted his eyes away. "...I-I think it's best for me stay here..."

"A-Actually, the only people that can't jump that high are Lemmy and Jr, unless Lemmy uses his ball to bounce on..." Iggy recollected. "But, don't worry. We'll make it... Just as we approach the ship, each of us will have to jump across. Afterwards, Ludwig's ship will have to pull away, yet not too far so that he will lose track of dad's."

"... ..." Poor Lawrence gulped.

"Sounds good to me." Ludwig admitted, still not taking his eyes off his target. "Me, Lemmy, and Junior will stay here."

"Alright," Wendy nodded comprehending, subsequently facing the rest of her brothers and Mario. "So, which of one us is going first?"

Said brothers eyed each other for a few seconds, only to rotate their heads back to the only girl in the bunch again.

"...Me?" Her eyes began to become wider as she placed her right hand on her chest. "Oh, no, no, no, no, no, _no!_ "

"Uh,..." Morton was trying his best to come up with an excuse. "...Ladies first...? ...You always say that before we go through those doors to eat back at dad's castle..."

"I'll go." Iggy raised his hand to his neck. "I'll go first so it'll cause less stress for you. I can catch you on the other side if you want."

"I will jump last to make sure everyone makes it alright." Mario with folded arms confirmed. "The thing is, we have to do this quickly and quietly. Ludwig, are we close enough to the ship yet?"

"Just about..."

"...Okay, then... Let's hop to it... No pun intended..." Morton Jr. spoke, he and the other jumpers walking to the end of the airship. The front of the ship was built to represent Ludwig Von Koopa's face so that he can be easily identified, the same applying for the rest for the rest of the Koopalings, minus Bowser Jr. The youngest son of the king was too young to own one at the time. To make it up for him, he owned a Koopa Clown Car like his father did, and he was satisfied in the end, not that he wasn't happy to begin with.

The end point of the airship was Ludwig's nose, meaning that the group of six had to be very cautious, unless they wanted to give up everything and jump to their head.

As he stated, Ignatius requested to go first. The tall one had all eyes on him as he took a few steps forward, as his older brother's ship was close enough to their father's. If he was asked, he would have confessed saying that he was terrified as well. Misjudging it could lead to a big consequence. He had to make this count.

Taking a deep breath and counting to three in his mind, he prepared himself by squatting down.

He then leaped. The ones who were accompanying him watched every second of it as the green-shelled Koopa launched himself through the air. Fortunately, he was able to make it onto Bowser's.

"I made it..."

None didn't have the chance to sigh in relief at that point. Now, it was Wendy's turn to get it over with. It was normal for someone to be filled with fear when it comes to taking risks.

 _"... ...Just act like you're jumping to attack Mario, and I'll be fine..."_

With a scream, she found herself flying through the rushing air, ending up landing right in Iggy's arms.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I just can't believe that I actually did it. You could have lost your only sister, you know-"

"Let's not think about worst case scenarios, right now..." He thrusted his hand out, refusing to soak that fact in. "It's Morton's turn..."

He was already walking to the starting point when suddenly, he stopped to ponder for a moment. _"This might be easier than it looks... Maybe, I can make it from here... Here goes... 1... 2... 3!"_

Sure, he was able to spring high enough so one could assume that it would count, but it couldn't. As he lowering, it was appearing as if he wasn't going to make the cut. And Morton was quick to realize that. His eyes widened.

Loud gasps were heard all around him as time seemed to be slowing down. Iggy didn't even give it a second thought as he rushed as fast as his legs could carry him to the edge of Bowser's ship. He extended his right arm to grab the dark-skinned one. Wendy knew she had to hold onto Iggy since Morton was heavier than him, in spite of the fact that the both of them were born before him.

Morton had to literally hold on to dear life as fear was swirling around fast. Him having the nerve to look down only made matters worse. His older brother and sister used all of their strength to pull him back to safety. All three of them falling down, they were facing the youngest of the trio with dissatisfied expressions.

"Morton Koopa Junior..." Ignatius's arms were crossed. "What made you believe that you were going to make that? Thanks to you, you're now making this look harder than it is! If we weren't standing here, no one could have saved you! Now you're making Larry even more frightened then he was before, and he's supposed to go next! WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!?"

Looking back, Larry was shakier than ever at what he just saw, even though he knew that it was out of his stupidity. _"H-He barely made it... Imagine what I would do..."_

Roy and Mario felt sorry for the blue-haired kind. The former decided to react first. "Want me to go first?"

"Huh?" He turned around before faking a smile. "...T-Thanks..."

The teenager knew he had to make this look as if it was not that difficult. Running to the edge of Ludwig's ship, he was in the air. Morton, Iggy, and Wendy took a few steps back to allow Roy some room. When he landed, Morton was the only one who rolled his eyes.

"Showoff..." He muttered.

"Says the one who almost fell to his doom..."

Now, Larry had no choice but to go next. It was now or never. With a second gulp, he took his first step to start making his way to the tip of Ludwig's nose on his airship. Regardless, before he could continue his walking, Mario placed both hands on his shoulders.

"Relax, you can do this. Just stay calm, and everything is going to be just fine. Focus."

Out of all people that would have encouraged him, it just had to be Mario. He was astounded at his words. Larry did hear that he was going to make sure everyone made the jump, but he didn't say that he was going to help anyone build up some courage. Nevertheless, it was just enough to make him believe that he could make it, without his feelings telling him otherwise. Like Iggy, he inhaled a rather deep breath. Consequently, he was soaring through the air, finally landing on his feet just seconds after.

When his eyes were perceiving his siblings, all of them had smiles, only making him do the same.

Mario had one on his face as well. But he was the only one besides Ludwig, Lemmy, and Jr. that was still on Ludwig's flying vehicle. Luckily for him, he was used to leaping all the time, hence to why he was nicknamed 'Jumpman' at one point. When he was on board, phase one of the plan was completed at long last.

* * *

 **I swear this has to be the longest chapter in a while. I knew this was going to beat 3,000 words, but now I am halfway to 4,000. And guess what? It's Tuesday evening, now. I typed the entire chapter in two days. Imagine what I could do for a week! With that being said, I am going to start typing chapter 13 on Wednesday! I'm expecting the chapter to be shorter than this one, so I know for sure that I can finish it by Thursday, and I'll be back on track!**

 **Questions:**

 **1\. What is different between Bowser and Dry Bowser? Personality? Intelligence?**

 **2\. Toadette thought of a question to ask the residents of the Mushroom Kingdom. What do you guys think?**

 **I'm having a special announcement to make in chapter 15! Stay tuned for that!**

 **What do you like/dislike? I encourage everyone to review!**


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